St. Albans calls itself the Maple City, and every spring the sap runs long before the grass has any idea what it is doing. Spears lawn care waits out that mud, then starts in — raking off the winter, cutting the first thin growth, setting the season's rhythm. Mowing and trimming carry the summer, edging keeps the borders honest, and an autumn cleanup puts the yard to bed under the last of the sugar-maple leaves. There is real satisfaction in the first cut of the year, when a tired lawn suddenly looks like it belongs to somebody. That feeling is the whole reason for the routes.