The first mow of the year on the Norwood Avenue side of town smells like nothing else — cold soil, cut green, a little of Franklin Lake in the wind. KGK Lawn Service marks the calendar by it. From that morning until the leaves are down, the route runs weekly: mowing, trimming around posts and beds, edging the sidewalks, clearing away the clippings. Long Branch gets an ocean-tempered spring that arrives late and a growing season that hangs on, so it's a marathon rather than a sprint. They pace it, and the lawns show the difference by July.