I just saw an interesting truck. It was a big green behemoth with a dump bed on the back. On the door was the name of the business: Covert Landscaping. This made me chuckle. I mean, isn’t the point of landscaping that people actually notice it?

Then again, I thought, maybe it’s not the finished product, per se, that “covert” refers to. Maybe it’s the methods of the landscapers. I know how big yard projects can go on and on. Maybe their sales pitch is doing the work under cover, or after hours. Your neighbors never see the wheel barrows upturned on your lawn, the day laborers munching their lunches out of paper bags, the shovels and pickaxes and coffee cups…

No, these guys come in after dark. Their hoses operate silently, their pickaxes have plush covered handles. They wheel the new shrubs and trees across your lawn in baby strollers and if they don’t finish in one night, they cover the whole yard with astro-turf drop cloths.

It’s the wave of the suburban future. What’s next? Mowers that use lasers to trim your lawn? Self washing hybrids? The future’s so bright…