It started with a letter from the electric company, notifying homeowners in my neighborhood that plans were under way to replace aging power lines. I didn’t think too much about it until one morning, after a heavy snowfall, I discovered spray-painted orange lines and a row of flags crossing one of my rock gardens.
Panicked at the thought of what appeared imminent, I called the number provided in the letter. It turns out the markings were purely precautionary. The actual work will take place in the utility easement beyond our fence line. Naturally, the orange markings disappeared and the flags fell over when the snow melted.
A few days later I was outside weeding when the first workman showed up. He told me the crew would need access to the electric service box in our yard: digging would commence the following Monday. Over the weekend, my husband, Randy, removed a fence section next to the box, hoping this would prevent men in boots from trampling the garden.
By Thursday there was still no sign of the crew. In the meantime, I have thought a lot about underground utilities and their potential effect on a garden. Underground is a real plus in terms of garden aesthetics. There are no poles or wires to wreck the view or to come crashing down.
Even so, when we built our garden and marked before we dug as advised by the utility companies, we still cut the phone line several times. Supposedly 12 inches down, it was in reality barely beneath the surface of the soil. The phone company, presumably tired of repair calls, ran a new cable at the proper depth one day while I was away. The crew very politely zigzagged the trench and cable around every plant that stood in the way of a straight line.
Utility maintenance is a necessary evil, but gardeners don’t usually give much thought to the network of lines beneath their properties.
We would all do well to consider utility easements when building a garden. Eventually everything buried in the ground will need service. Don’t plant anything over a utility line that cannot be easily moved. Think lawn or gravel path – things easy to replace. And under no circumstances should you build something permanent, like a rock garden, over the line that supplies power to your home.
