Late April turns the marsh grass off Barnum Island from straw to green, and the gardens of Island Park follow about a week behind. This is a garden center's kind of work: choosing what will actually take hold in sandy, wind-brushed soil, then laying the beds out, planting them and mulching them in. Lawns get cut and kept all through the growing season, edges held straight along the walks and driveways, borders trimmed back before they start to wander. The design side is the pleasure — a small front yard, a few feet of frontage, and a plan that makes the whole thing look intentional by June. By the time the bay wind goes warm, the block reads like somebody meant it that way.