Before the heat sets in, a Manalapan morning still smells like the farm country this was — cut grass, damp ground, a brook running somewhere behind the treeline. David's Lawn & Landscape Design starts the week in that hour, mowing once the dew is off and the light is still soft across the front yards. Beds get mulched, borders get cut in, and shrubs are kept off the windows so a house reads open instead of overgrown. By August the township is deep green and thick, and staying ahead of it is the entire job. Every visit makes the same modest promise: even grass, clean lines, nothing left scattered on the walk.