In April the Passaic runs heavy with melt and the Great Falls drops its seventy-seven feet loud enough to hear from blocks away. The lawns wake up in the same week, and VERTEX LAWN CARE LLC is out with them, opening the season with cleanups before the first cut of the year. From there it is steady work: mowing on a rhythm, edging the walks, trimming what the mower cannot reach along fences and foundations. Paterson summers can bake a yard flat, so the aim is a lawn that still holds its color and its shape in August. There is a particular pleasure in pulling away from a property that looks squared off from the curb.