Sea Cliff carries its yards on terraces, stacked up the slope behind picket fences and deep front porches. Susan Giordano Designs works those tiers — setting out and planting beds, keeping lawns mowed and trimmed, edging where turf meets stone, and taking the beds down clean at either end of the season. Terraced ground rewards planning: whatever sits at the top has to read well from the bottom, and every step and low wall becomes part of the composition. October mornings arrive soft and hazy on this hill, and the maples turn a whole street the color of a lit lamp. A garden that suits one of these cottages looks settled, as though it came up with the house.