October announces itself in Salina by sound first — cottonwood leaves letting go along the river channel, skittering down the street ahead of a north wind. Carlson Tree Co spends that stretch of the year chasing them off lawns before they mat down and smother the grass underneath. Leaf and debris cleanup, a last few mowings while the turf still asks for them, trimming tight to beds and fence lines, and a yard goes into the cold months clear-headed instead of buried. Come April the grass remembers the favor. The work runs through Salina and out west toward Brookville and Culver.