Sanford Avenue keeps its oaks, and by July their canopy turns the sidewalks into a green tunnel while the lawns beneath fight for whatever light gets through. HonMex Landscaping works Vailsburg in that heat — mowing high so the grass can hold its moisture, trimming around root flares and fence posts, edging the walks, sweeping the cuttings off the front steps. Shade lawns are their own puzzle: they thin out, they go patchy, they want a lighter hand than any sunny yard ever will. Reading that difference is most of the craft in this part of the city. A block of lawns that look even under all that canopy is something worth driving past slowly.