Houston's dense gumbo clay is known for cracking in drought and turning sticky after rain, and growing a fine lawn on it takes patience. Thompson's Lawn Development treats each yard as something to be built up over time. Regular mowing at the right height, careful trimming and attention to thin or bare patches help turf knit together season by season. March is when that effort first shows, as the grass wakes from its brief winter pause and fills in beneath a fog that lifts off the bayous by midmorning. A lawn developed this way grows fuller and more even with each turn of the year.