By late May in Tilton, the grass along the Winnipesaukee River comes in fast and thick, and Swain Landscaping is out early, cutting clean lines across yards that run from the old mill-town streets up toward the Sanbornton hills. There is a plain pleasure in the finished thing — the striped lawn, the trimmed edge holding tight against a walkway, the clippings swept off the drive before the truck pulls away. Through the long green stretch of summer and into the leaf-heavy weeks of October, they keep lawns mowed, trimmed, and tidied for households in Tilton, Northfield, Franklin, Belmont, and Sanbornton. It is unhurried, satisfying work: a yard that holds its shape week after week, glowing in the low gold light that settles over the valley at the end of a working day.