Water runs downhill through Upper Montclair the way it always has, gathering in the brook that threads Yantacaw Brook Park and slipping east toward the flats. Lawns near that line stay damp well into the morning, surge after a storm, and want a different hand than the dry high ground a few streets up. EcoThumbs reads that difference — cutting height set to the month, trimming along the wet edges, weeds pulled and treated before they claim a bed, mulch laid where the ground bakes hardest. Late August is the honest test, when everything is heavy and green and one skipped week shows from the street. Getting it right produces a yard that looks unhurried, which is the hardest look there is to fake.