A core-aerated lawn drinks differently — the water sinks instead of sheeting off, and within a couple of weeks the slice-seeded rows have knit into one unbroken green. That is the work Higgins Landscaping Inc. does around Bridgewater, on the sandy, oak-shaded flats above the Town River, where turf has to be coaxed rather than commanded. They run integrated fertilizing programs, thatch and aerate on an annual cycle, over-seed the thin places, tend shrubs and trees, manage turf pests, and work biological matter back into tired soil so the root zone has something to hold. When the woods lean close and the air goes humid, they treat the shaded edges for mosquitoes and ticks so the yard stays a place people actually use. Bridgewater and the towns beside it get lawns that hold their color through an August scorcher and still look like themselves come October.