The Saco lays down flat, generous soil where it widens through Bartlett, and anything green takes to it fast once the valley finally warms. We work the yards along that river bottom and up the side roads: mowing, edging, cutting back what the season pushed too far, and clearing the grit and branch-fall the melt leaves behind. Grass comes late here and comes hard, so a Bartlett lawn asks for patience in May and attention straight through August. On a clear afternoon the mountains stand right over the mower, which is not a bad place to spend a day. We like leaving a yard that looks at home under them.