Lawn Stars

About Lawn Stars

Rain comes down the Tygart Valley in sheets in late spring, and the day after, Mill Creek seems to have grown an inch overnight. Lawn Stars takes that the only way it can be taken — mowing on a rhythm, trimming close along fence posts and foundations, edging the walks, and clearing off the branch litter a mountain storm scatters behind it. Between Rich Mountain and Cheat the valley floor runs narrow, so the yards stretch long toward the water in strips of bright wet green. Cut them right and the whole bottom of the hollow looks tended, one lawn setting the standard for the next. The truck heads north to Beverly and Elkins and south to Huttonsville and Valley Bend, and on a clear night out here there is nothing above a finished lawn but stars.