The Other Side

About The Other Side

Rain moves across the middle of the island in bands, and there are afternoons near the Grand Forest when it falls on one side of the road and the sun is out on the other. The Other Side takes lawns as they come in that climate — mowing when the ground will hold a machine, trimming and edging once the standing water has gone, and keeping maintenance regular enough that a wet week never becomes a lost month. Mid-island yards sit in clearings ringed by second-growth fir, which means shade on one half and full light on the other and grass that behaves differently in each. Cutting them well is a matter of paying attention to that split rather than fighting it. Afterward the lawn reads as one whole piece again, edges sharp, walk swept, the woods pushed politely back to where they belong.