Midsummer noon on the courthouse square, and the old elms hand out about the only shade in Union County. Clayton New Mexico keeps lawns green in a town where green is a decision somebody makes every single week — mowing on a steady rotation, edging the walks, trimming close along curb strips and tree rings. Grass cut at the right height here stands up better to the sun and stays thicker into August. Yard cleanups clear away the drifted litter and dead growth that collect against fences out on the plains. The result is the kind of block where a lawn reads level and cool all the way from the sidewalk.