Phils Yard Work

About Phils Yard Work

First week of October, the valley wakes up with balloons over it — dozens of them drifting low along the river while the coffee is still hot. Phils Yard Work is usually already going by then, because October is cleanup month around here: leaves, spent annuals, the last mowings of the year, hedges taken down to a shape that will hold through the cold. The rest of the season runs on the ordinary rhythm — cutting, trimming, edging, walks blown off, bags loaded. Nothing about it is complicated, and every bit of it shows. A yard in Alameda kept up all year looks different in that low autumn light, and anybody walking past can tell.