288 Landscapes

About 288 Landscapes

State Highway 288 runs south until it can go no farther, and Clute sits down near the end of it, a short drive from where the Brazos hands itself over to the Gulf. 288 Landscapes takes its name from that road and works the towns strung along it, mowing, edging and trimming yards that grow on salt air and coastal rain. Down here the growing season is generous almost to a fault, and a lawn can get away from a family in a fortnight. Keeping to the route is the whole trick: same week, same cut, walks blown clean before the truck pulls off. On a clear evening the light comes in flat off the water and a freshly edged yard looks like it was drawn with a straightedge.