Sol y sombra

About Sol y sombra

West Salem is built on a hillside, so half of most yards up there is bright open slope and the other half sits under a fir throwing shade across the grass all afternoon. Sol y sombra tends both halves — mowing, edging and trimming the sunny run, then working gently through the thin turf beneath the canopy where the light only visits. In September, when the cottonwoods along the river at Wallace Marine Park begin going yellow, the leaf work starts and the mowing eases off. Every lawn in this town is really two lawns, and the craft is getting them to agree by the time the truck pulls away. That is the finish worth driving back to see: one even sweep of green from the shaded top of the yard down to the curb.