Evening in June, Hoopes Park green right down to the water, the light going gold behind the pond — that is the hour Auburn lawns look most like themselves. J & M Landscaping chases that look everywhere else in the city: even mowing, trimming worked in tight around trees and fence posts, borders cut sharp along walks and beds, clippings gone. Central New York summers swing from soaked to bone-dry inside a week, and turf answers by growing in fits, so the mowing height moves with it rather than against it. Cleanups in spring and fall bookend the year. What is left, week to week, is a lawn that keeps the same shape no matter what the weather did.