Landscaping Around Utility Boxes
If you have plans to live off the grid, they’re a fact of life, and they, unfortunately, aren’t usually designed with aesthetics in mind. The best you can do is try to live in harmony with them. The very first thing you need to do when landscaping around utility boxes is to call the company that installed them. These boxes are serious business, and there are often restrictions about what you can do near them, like bans on permanent structures and distances before you can plant anything. Make sure to follow these restrictions – the companies need access and underground wires need room to run free of roots. That being said, there are ways to hide utility boxes that don’t conflict with any restrictions.
Ways to Hide Utility Boxes
If you can’t plant anything within a certain distance of your utility box, put up a trellis or fence just beyond that distance that falls between the box and the place you’re most likely to view it from. Plant a fast-growing, flowering, vine-like clematis or trumpet vine to fill in the space and distract the eye. You can achieve the same effect by planting a row of shrubs or small trees. If you are allowed to plant near or around the box, select flowers of varying colors, heights, and bloom times. If the landscaping around utility boxes is interesting enough, you may not even realize there’s something ugly in the middle of it.
