Greetings,

We're having a new house built and our lot ended
up having an electric company power box in the front
yard. It's green and is about 2ft. wide, 3ft. long and
2.5ft. tall. If anyone has any suggestions on what to
use to cover it up, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Roger

Xref: kermit rec.gardens:227801

Not recommended you try to cover it up.

You may be in violation of local ordinances if you try it and may wind up
paying a fine.


Roger Hill wrote in message
...
Greetings,

We're having a new house built and our lot ended
up having an electric company power box in the front
yard. It's green and is about 2ft. wide, 3ft. long and
2.5ft. tall. If anyone has any suggestions on what to
use to cover it up, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Roger

On Sun, 18 May 2003 14:29:12 +0000, Roger Hill wrote:

Greetings,

We're having a new house built and our lot ended
up having an electric company power box in the front yard. It's green and
is about 2ft. wide, 3ft. long and 2.5ft. tall. If anyone has any
suggestions on what to use to cover it up, I'd appreciate it.

Your best bet is to call the power company and ask what the set back it
from the box. It's very likly that you can't plant with in X feet ( 3/4
feet..? ) and there has to be access to it for removal if need be. Luckly
it's green and doesn't stick out as bad as if it was some other color.
Good luck .

--
http://yard-works.netfirms.com

Roger Hill wrote
Greetings,

We're having a new house built and our lot ended
up having an electric company power box in the front
yard. It's green and is about 2ft. wide, 3ft. long and
2.5ft. tall. If anyone has any suggestions on what to
use to cover it up, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Roger

We planted a semi-circle of grape ivy (similar to holly) around our
electical box. If the box is not fully accessable the city will cut it
down or remove it. After a year it could not be seen (or accessed)
except from the street. We keep the hedge trimmed so that it does not
touch the box and keep it fully accessable. One street down they
planted giant grasses around the box. You'll need to select a plant
that meets your conditions (you did not state you have shade or sun
around the power box). The box is probably on an easement which means
you have to care for it but the city can do whatever it pleases.

On Sun, 18 May 2003 18:57:33 GMT, "Cereoid-UR12" wrote:

Not recommended you try to cover it up.

You may be in violation of local ordinances if you try it and may wind up
paying a fine.

The last one I looked at very closely had a sticker on it with the permitted
distances for plantings.

"Roger Hill" wrote in message
...
Greetings,

We're having a new house built and our lot ended
up having an electric company power box in the front
yard. It's green and is about 2ft. wide, 3ft. long and
2.5ft. tall. If anyone has any suggestions on what to
use to cover it up, I'd appreciate it.


As others have said, there are restrictions about planting around these
boxes. That said, I have never seen anyone open one of these boxes in all
the time I have lived in my house. I think that if you do plant close to
the box you risk having the plants destroyed should the power company ever
need access to the box. In other words, you are taking a calculated risk by
obstructing the box. I doubt you would go to jail for putting a shrub in
front of the utility box. The one in front of my house has a sticker that
says you can't plant within x feet of the side that opens. There are no
restrictions about the other sides. I bet that if you pick an upscale
neighborhood to survey, you will find that everyone has planted around these
boxes. You will probably get some good ideas by doing this. Take you
camera and get pictures. I have seen lots of ornamental grasses, spirea,
vibernums, and evergreens like arborvitae and juniper planted around the
boxes.

We have:

dwarf lilacs
burning bushes
mugo pine
black-eyed susans
tickseed
butterfly bush (too weedy and big -- that one was a mistake that we are
transplanting this fall)
several groups of spring bulbs

planted around our full-sun box. Nothing was major $$ to purchase (pretty
ho-hum as far as originality of the plants, I know) so if the electric
company has to cut anything to get to the box, we're not out too much. We
have them growing in a mulched bed around the concrete base on the box --
closer than the required distance, but no one has said anything in 10 years!

--
-- pelirojaroja
Zone 6 (really a 5, USDA is nuts), Cleveland, OH

"Timothy" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 18 May 2003 14:29:12 +0000, Roger Hill wrote:

Greetings,

We're having a new house built and our lot ended
up having an electric company power box in the front yard. It's green
and
is about 2ft. wide, 3ft. long and 2.5ft. tall. If anyone has any
suggestions on what to use to cover it up, I'd appreciate it.

Your best bet is to call the power company and ask what the set back it
from the box. It's very likly that you can't plant with in X feet ( 3/4
feet..? ) and there has to be access to it for removal if need be. Luckly
it's green and doesn't stick out as bad as if it was some other color.
Good luck .

--
http://yard-works.netfirms.com

On Sun, 18 May 2003 14:29:12 GMT, "Roger Hill"
wrote:

We're having a new house built and our lot ended
up having an electric company power box in the front
yard. It's green and is about 2ft. wide, 3ft. long and
2.5ft. tall. If anyone has any suggestions on what to
use to cover it up, I'd appreciate it.

Ask the power co., not only about setback regs, but for suggestions on
what is appropriate to plant. They may not have a clue, but they might
just be full of information and good ideas.

Thanks for all the great suggestions and ideas!!!

Roger

"Roger Hill" wrote in message
...
Greetings,

We're having a new house built and our lot ended
up having an electric company power box in the front
yard. It's green and is about 2ft. wide, 3ft. long and
2.5ft. tall. If anyone has any suggestions on what to
use to cover it up, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Roger

"Roger Hill" wrote:

We're having a new house built and our lot ended
up having an electric company power box in the front
yard. It's green and is about 2ft. wide, 3ft. long and
2.5ft. tall. If anyone has any suggestions on what to
use to cover it up, I'd appreciate it.

We also have a transformer (that's what the box is) in our yard. We
were having *major* problems with neighborhood kids sitting on it and
banging on it in tune to their boombox when playing basketball at the
hoop the neighbor set up. Despite knowing that it technically belonged
to the power company and we had no choice about it being there, I was
afraid of being sued if something would happen to one of the kids.

Fortunately, a person we knew used to be a v.p. with a major power
company. He told me that despite the warnings about not planting
anything near it, to feel free to do it only if I was willing to have
the power compnay cut it down if they needed access to the box. I ended
up planting rose bushes on the ends with dianthus, alyssum and rocket
snapdragons as companions and just snapdragons, alyssum and dianthus on
the side that opens up and its opposite side. It looks nicer and the
kids stay well away from it especially after my little "talk" about
electromagnetic radiation, cancer and certain body parts. *evil grin*

Susan
shsimko at duke dot edu