The Red Cedar begins its life in this corner of Livingston County, and by late March it runs brown and full while the fields of Handy township are still deciding whether to be mud or meadow. Greenerthings Lawns opens the year in that thaw — cleanups first, raking off flattened thatch and a winter's worth of sticks, then the first cut once the ground firms up. After that it settles into a weekly rhythm of mowing, trimming and edging through the long green middle of the season. Spring out here rewards patience: wait a week too long and the yard is a hayfield, go too early and you're pressing ruts into soft ground. Getting that first pass right is what makes all of summer look easy.