By June the porches on the older Cadillac blocks have disappeared behind peonies, and the beds beneath them want somebody with a hand tool and an opinion. Rent-a-Gardener, LLC does that close work — planting, weeding, shaping beds, mulching, pruning, and the steady upkeep that keeps a garden from turning into a thicket by the middle of August. Northern Michigan gives a garden about five months to say everything it has to say, so nothing gets postponed. Working around the perennials instead of straight through them is more or less the whole trick. Mowing and trimming fill out the rest, until the lawn and the beds finally look like they belong to one another.