Winthrop is nearly an island: a mile-wide arm of land with the harbor on one side and open water on the other, and the wind knows it. Winthrop Landscaping Company works with that salt air rather than against it, mowing and trimming the small bright lawns that ride the Five Sisters drumlins, edging walks, clearing beds in spring and hauling leaves through November. When the cold turns, the same trucks go to plowing driveways, shoveling front steps and salting the walkways that glaze over first near the seawall at Winthrop Beach. There is a particular pleasure in a driveway opened while the harbor is still black and the city lights across the water are only beginning to fade. It is close-to-home work in a town where nothing sits more than a few minutes from the tide.