Edgewater sits on a shelf of land only a few blocks deep, and behind it the Palisades rise in gray columns. VT and Sons Landscaping mows and tends the terraced yards on those blocks — the small level places people cut into a hillside and hold up with walls and timber steps. Autumn runs long against the cliff face, which keeps the light late and lets the maples give up their leaves slowly into November. The crew cuts, trims, edges and hauls the leaf piles out so the grass goes into the cold breathing. A yard the size of a room, done carefully, still changes the whole walk up to the door.