Everything here begins with the ground itself — decomposed granite, river cobble, the pale grit an arroyo leaves behind after an August cloudburst has come and gone in twenty minutes. Albert Montano Sand & Gravel tends lawns and yards on Santa Fe's south side with that same attention to what is underfoot: grass cut even, borders swept back true, the gravel margins raked smooth where they meet the green. A yard here is half stone and half growing thing, and the look of the whole depends on the crispness of the seam between them. In the flat white light of a late-summer midday, when shade is scarce and everything is bright, a yard finished this way reads cool before you ever step into it. That is a result worth coming back for.