TRYING to hide utility boxes in my backyard!
 

From my lanai, I see these 3 ugly utility boxes! I was wondering how other Villagers landscape them, and make it acceptable accessing to utility co.? Great if photos could be submitted!!!
Thanking you in advance!!!

Be aware that the electric company requires a certain amount of space around their boxes. Two years ago a number of homeowners (not all) were required to remove shrubbery that they had placed to close.

I have 3 cable boxes on my front lawn. They look beautiful.

Neighbor had their landscaping company plant bushes, plants and perennials around their large and two small boxes. No idea of the cost but 7 months later utility company gave them notice every thing had to be moved.

Landscaping company said they must have changed the rules, moved everything to different areas of lawn, which cost neighbors more money

Be very careful, as noted above there are restrictions on what and how close you can plant landscaping to these boxes. Also, you may want to check your plat plan for your lot, if it is anything like ours there is a utility right of way that has very specific restrictions on what can be done in that area. In our case NOTHING permanent can be installed. Do not rely on what a landscaper suggests and be sure to get ARC approval for your planned changes.

Camouflage tarp. Or, paint them green. Either way, after a while you'll hardly notice them. 🫠😉🙃

Compared to high line wires and poles I agree..:beer3:

Agreed
 

Totally, you could have it much worse. The people in Citrus Grove now live with this at the end of their street…

I planted a couple of dwarf fruit trees around 6 feet from each of mine (ARC approved). I almost forgot that they're there. The trees are about 3 feet tall and almost as wide so can't see them at all from my lanai.

A couple of potted plants that grow up to a few feet high and wide, that can be dragged out of the way when the utility companies come.

OMG! That is awful! I would be so PO'd if I had to look at that from my lanai. 😱😡🤬

Several are
 

Several are. It happened a little over a year ago. The neighborhood got an announcement that a new transformer was coming from Leesburg electric and that the main access road would be closed temporarily for its transport. They put it in and 3 months later this appeared almost overnight. No landscaping will save this neighborhood.

I can imagine the same happening down by the other utility power pad between Marshbend and 301. The more utilities needed, the more the need to expand at power substations. Can anyone really see a decreased need in electricity?

This OP was seeking answers to a specific question. Your comment is unrelated to that question.

Seemed like a legit answer to me. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I could think of a lot worse things to have in your field of view. Which is easy to come by in TV.

Most of my neighbors ignore them, but one planted reeds. These can be cut down and will grow right back up again. They usually cut them once or twice a year.

Factually, not true. The OP was asking how other Villagers landscape around the utility boxes. My post clearly addresses that question. I use no specific landscaping to hide the boxes. A lot of other Villagers do the same thing.

I planted so called dwarf fruit trees, 7 years later they looked like the regular fruit trees.

My neighbor is hiding one out front with a fake rock.....

We have two near the Cart Garage. Will stay exposed as they have been for 4 years. We live at Linden. South of 44. To many problems could develop.

Getting ready to sell our Maryland house and move to TV. I have covered several utility boxes with various sizes of fake rocks that I bought online from Amazon. They are made from some sort of durable plastic and are easy to pick up and move, but also heavy enough that they don’t blow away.

You can buy landscape screens that are temporary so can be removed when the utility company comes to check. They look nice and hide the boxes. Check Homedepot, Lowes and Amazon. They are sold to hide a.c. units but also work for utility boxes.

I believe it's 4ft.

Buy some of the plastic hedge panels that lowes sells. They can be removed easily

Try Lowes or Home Depot , they sell a fake hedge you just stick in the ground.

There's a box on the property line between my house and the neighbor's. It has some neat looking grasses and flowers surrounding it. They're all weeds since neither of us planted them. But they're pretty so they stay. If the utility company needs us to cut them down, we will. And then we'll ignore them again so they can grow back, until the next time the utility company needs to get in.

Put plants on the 3 sides blocking your view of them

I had a house where i build a ‘box’ out of lattice. I used zip ties to tie them together, it looked great - just slide over.

Call the Electric Company, then go to Community Standards and let them tell the real story. May save you in the long run!

You better check out anything you are thinking of doing with the utilities. Our neighbors had to remove their banana tree which they planted in their own yard to enhance the view from their lanai and "hide" the box to some degree. Then other neighbors were made to have their shrubs removed (at some expense since they were tall and mature) because they were found to be too close to the utility box... though they were a considerable distance from the actual box !

Good advice, as some of our neighbors could tell you after their experiences with the utility people !

We moved here just over two years ago. Less than a month after getting here, the electric transformer on the property line between us and a neighbor blew up - not talking a fiery explosion, just a big thump. The power company arrived and diagnosed the problem and then we had to wait until a replacement transformer arrived from somewhere. This transformer served about five houses - us, our neighbors on both sides, and several houses across the street. Several hours later, the replacement arrived and a large truck with a crane lifted the old transformer out and the replacement in. About 11:00pm the power came back on. The next day, a guy from the power company came by to warn us our power would be out again the next day as they were sending a grounds crew in to remove the soil that had been contaminated by the cooling oil in the old transformer when it blew. They lifted the transformer out and dug under it and several feet around it to get all the oil soaked dirt out and then filled it back with new soil. Back went the transformer and they put some sod around on the bare dirt. And that, my friends, is why you don't want to plant anything too close to the utility box.

I like this idea! Any idea where one buys a fake rock? Amazon, probably 🤔

The OP said there are 3 boxes, so it sounds like these are cable TV junction boxes owned by 3 different companies. If so, I don't know how much control they have over what you can plant near them. The electric company would not be the company to call.

ARC, maybe?

Fake utility box is where the garden gnomes live. Beware!

I have three boxes on the property line behind my house as well. One is an Xfinity box, one I don't recognize and one is definitely a SECO transformer box.

The SECO rules for landscaping are on their Keep It Clear page.

I suspect that in a real emergency, the utility box is for your property too, so you are the one in the emergency, you’d probably like the utility workers to find the boxes and fix the problem as soon as possible. So keep the access for them as required also for your own sake.

Excellent! I approve this message. 😉

[QUOTE=lvshworles;2349190]From my lanai, I see these 3 ugly utility boxes! I was wondering how other Villagers landscape them, and make it acceptable accessing to utility co.? Great if photos could be submitted!!!
Thanking you in advance!!![/QUOTE

Sorry, no pic as last year SECO had a cow over our shrubs planted 10 years prior (to block lania view of large electric box) and made us pull them out. So, nothing re-done yet to show you but just wanted to share that we did check the set-back requirement at the time and those shrubs were ok there for 10 years and trimmed very regularly. We used some of the plain green non-flowering shrubs the Villages had supplied with our house originally. Would have loved to use a fake rock but this box is rather large. Our neighbors planted a small tree with ornamental grasses at the base to block the view from their side. I think in theory the grasses are a good idea and easy to crop low if needed but they are harder to weed. FYI, my neighbors plantings are closer than our shrubs were but the box's access door was closer to our side so we got told to remove/move ours (they did not). So, my advice, check set-back requirements now before you start but I would not invest in anything that in a few years you will be heartsick over moving/losing if needed. And, I'd add some space to the set back if there is an access door (vs the type that just pull up).