Cerro Gordo lies low and level in Columbus County, where blackwater slides under the cypress along the Lumber River and the highway runs straight at the horizon. Southern Solutions Landscaping and Grading spends most of the year on grass — mowing, edging, trimming and hauling the season's growth off before it takes a place over, because a coastal-plain summer here does not quit until October. Then once or twice a winter the sky lets go something colder, the roads glaze, and the same crew turns to plowing drives and salting walks. A yard put right in June and a drive opened in January are really the same job: making a place usable again. Serving Cerro Gordo, Chadbourn, Fair Bluff, Whiteville and Tabor City.