SouthWest Hardscape

About SouthWest Hardscape

October cools this mesa from the nighttime down, and the yards of Rio Rancho Estates start collecting things: elm leaves in the rock, seed heads on the grass, brittle stems in every bed. Autumn is patient work — a final round of mows as the growth slows, a clean edge cut while the ground is still soft, leaves blown and raked out of gravel where a rake alone will not do it, dead stalks cut back so spring has room to come up. Rock yards hide their mess better than lawns do, which is exactly why they get gone over twice. The trimmings go out with the truck the same afternoon they come off. Come November the place sits quiet and squared away under a low gold sun.