East of town, out where Dixboro Road runs past the botanical gardens, July settles in heavy and the grass wants cutting twice a week or not at all. Atzinger Gardens mows in that heat — early, before the humidity stacks up off the river bottom — trimming tight along fence lines and running the edges of the drives clean. A Michigan summer will swing from drought-brown to a solid week of rain, and a lawn carried through both looks like an entirely different property come September than one that wasn't. Fall cleanup follows the leaves down, week by week, until the ground is bare and even. It is steady, seasonal, outdoor work done for the plain pleasure of a yard that looks right.