Late March in Clinton, the Wachusett Reservoir lets go of its last gray plates of ice, and the hills above the mill blocks turn the color of wet rope — that's the week Amazonia Landscape & Construction starts moving. Spring cleanups first, then mulch laid dark against the flower and plant installations, sod rolled out over freshly graded terrain, sprinklers tuned so a July lawn on a South Meadow slope stays green while the pavement shimmers. There is a particular pleasure in the hardscape work: a block wall set true along a hillside yard, a walkway of fitted stone leading out from a triple-decker's back door, patios that will still be holding October light long after the leaves are hauled away. And when February shoulders in off the reservoir and the streets go white before daylight, the plows are out early, opening residential drives and commercial lots so the town can find its way to work. From Clinton out through Lancaster, Sterling, Leominster, Shrewsbury, Marlborough, Concord and Sudbury, it is the same simple ambition — leave the ground better shaped than you found it.