Late August in Springfield sounds like the ballfields at Meisel Avenue Park and the far-off hum of Route 22. Salas Landscaping LLC spends those weeks on the lawn work that keeps a yard from going ragged in the heat — mowing at the right height, trimming close to the fence posts, clearing the clippings so nothing mats down in the humidity. Grass under an August sun forgives very little, and a lawn still standing even in the last week of the month got there through steady visits, not luck. Come October the same yards need the leaves off before the first hard rain drives them into the turf. Springfield is a town of front yards people actually sit in, and they are worth keeping that way.