In Peru the orchards begin almost where the lawns end, and by late August the whole Champlain Valley carries that cider-sweet weight down every side road. Birchwood Landscapes keeps mowing, trimming and seasonal cleanups on a steady rhythm for homes tucked between the apple rows and the first rise of the Adirondack foothills. There is a real satisfaction in a stripe laid straight across a valley yard and an edge along the walk cut clean enough to run a thumb down. Leaves arrive early here, stripped off the hillsides by one good October wind, and the raking follows close behind them. It is ordinary work, done attentively, on ground this crew knows by its corners.