Landscaping

8 years ago

We are moving into a new home that has 3 yes three electrical raised boxes on our front lawn; these 3 outlets are not in a neat little group but placed on the front corner helter shelter. Can you suggest or have a photo of someone with this situation and the landscape solution for this????? I have attached a photo prior to levelling and grass being done to give you an idea of my situation.

Thanking you in advance for your expert advice for this confusing situation.

Featured Answer

unwantedadvice

8 years ago

Beautiful home you are building! I did a Google image search of "landscaping around electrical boxes" and many choices came up, however, I think it would behoove you to contact your electric company to see if plants, shrubs, etc. are good things to plant around them, especially the large one, since water and electricity don't mix and it's possible for water to degrade the boxes over time. Good luck.

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Comments (6)

hayleydaniels
8 years ago
I completely agree with unwantedadvice. Don't put in anything more than a small flowers until you find out what they allow. Where I live north of Seattle, if you block a fire hydrant with a plant, the fire department has been known to grab a chain saw, cut it down, leave you a mess and often a ticket for blocking it--and this was my husband's former boss who would do this years ago before retiring--my husband is a firefighter. They need to be able to access the hydrant at a moment's notice, and I'm sure the utility companies feel the same way.
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Monie
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you for your suggestions they are greatly appreciated.
PRO
True Scape Design
8 years ago
There are limited options with what you can do in front of the boxes and some limitations at the back as well. Many times they will place a sticker on the boxes stating landscaping requirements as least that is what they do in our area (especially the biggest one). Best thing to do would be to start with finding out exactly what the requirements are starting with a call to the utility provider. Once you find those out you'll know the parameters of where you can plant, best options for a limited use of space (i.e. a tree taking up a good chunk of real estate) is put in upright trellises with vines planted to grow up them, a short fence would also be an option to take up the least amount of space but still block views and preserve space for other things, although a fence might not be an attractive option or an option that fits the space properly. Little hard to tell without seeing the final grade out or the intended lawn areas but there are options to soften or block the views of these things. Best of luck.
kathleen MK
8 years ago
you might ask the builder and utilities if there are other options to move these.
Monie
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you but yes we did ask the builder since we were paying a premium price for the corner lot; but found out later that the majority if not all of the corner lots house these 3 eyesores. Such ridiculousness in this day and age of technology. So in hindsight we paid more to maintain the extra lawn area and have these 3 huge lawn ornaments placed randomly at the front not back of our house. They were put there at no cost to us which was the only item that wasn't a plus plus $$$ on this build. The feedback I am getting is you really can't place flower/shrubs around them due to access and shouldn't use excess water near these electrical units. Lucky us!!!!!

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