Late March at Wildwood Lake: the ice has gone soft at the shoreline, the laurel is stiffening toward bloom, and every lawn in Mountain Lakes wakes up matted and gray. Cunningham Landscaping starts right there — raking winter out of the turf, clearing beds of oak leaf and fallen branch, giving the grass its first real cut of the year. It is unglamorous work, and it decides how the whole summer will look. Mulch goes down dark against new green, and edges get carved so the line between bed and lawn reads as a decision rather than an accident. The borough's steep lots run down toward the water, and by May they hold their color all the way to the shore.