May is the month Taylor decides what it is going to look like all summer, and it happens fast — one warm week off Allen Road and the beds need edging, the shrubs need shaping, the mulch needs to go down. Vic's Landscaping works that window: cutting a clean bed line into heavy clay, laying mulch even and deep enough to hold moisture through the dry stretch in August, setting plantings where they will actually get the light. Mowing starts alongside it and runs the length of the season, with trimming and cleanups to match. A bed line drawn well in spring is still holding its shape in September, which is the real test. Around here the ground gives nothing away, so everything worth having in a yard has to be built into it.