Top Green

About Top Green

Saint Paul keeps a glasshouse full of palms at Como for the months when nothing outside will grow, which tells you how seriously this city takes its green. Top Green takes it seriously too, out in the neighborhoods around the lake and the fairgrounds all summer long, where sprinklers tick through July evenings and the smell of cut grass drifts over back fences. The work is steady and honest: mow, trim, edge, repeat, until a yard reads as one smooth piece from the porch to the alley. On a hot afternoon you can hear the paddleboats on Como Lake and the mowers going in every direction — the whole neighborhood being cared for at once. A lawn that is looked after every week has a calm to it, and calm is what this crew leaves behind.