Shaping ground is a different craft from simply tending it. On these compact Oakland County lots, bungalows set shoulder to shoulder with the garage off the alley and maybe forty feet of back yard to work with, every inch of grade matters and a bed cut with a true curve changes the whole face of a house. The work means edging beds into shape, laying mulch, bringing shrubs back into scale with the porch, and moving leaves off in the October weeks when the maples let go all at once. Mowing and trimming keep it honest from one week to the next. Come a gray November afternoon in Hazel Park, a yard that has been properly shaped still reads well: dark beds, defined lines, nothing shaggy left waiting on spring.