August in Rockland comes on humid and still, the kind of heat that makes the grass go quiet and opens cracks along the edge of the walk. R&L Lawn Service LLC works through it with the mowing raised a notch, trimming kept close around posts and beds, edges recut where the turf has crept onto the concrete, and clippings blown clear before they mat. Spring Valley sits in low country where small brooks run south out of the village, so a yard can hold water in one corner and bake in another — the same lawn, two problems. Cleanups bracket the year, opening the beds in March and stripping the leaves out in November. By Labor Day the color has come back, and everything cut through the hard weeks looks like it was worth doing.