For Safety and Aesthetics, Call Before You Dig and Plan Before You Plant

A garden without its plants is a mass of wires, pipes, steel, plastic, soil, wood and concrete. This tangled network operates your home and garden. Without it, you wouldn't have landscape lighting, irrigation, an outdoor kitchen, a water garden, a deck, a swimming pool or a security system.

But it can be easy to damage underground utilities, so there are strict rules about digging. The law requires that you notify Miss Utility, a central utility-locating service, at least 48 hours before you dig a hole, large or small, on your property. Yes, these laws apply to individual homeowners, even for small projects.

The service is free. You reach it by calling 811, a nationwide number initiated last year.

Miss Utility will contact all companies that have underground lines in your area, dispatching professionals to mark them from the street to the house so that you don't disturb them.

If you dig a hole without calling the line-locating number, you could be fined and charged for repair.

Aesthetically, it's helpful that almost all utilities are now installed underground and, therefore, easier to disguise. The challenge is keeping track of where they are so they aren't damaged when installing plants, patios, walls, decks and other structures. On average, more than one unintentional hit per minute occurs in the United States, about 700,000 underground strikes annually.

These are general guidelines for how deeply most utility lines are buried. Confirm with local companies because grade changes completed after lines were laid may alter depth.

• Electric: Minimum of 18 inches, 36 preferred.
• Gas: No standard depth; 24 inches average, 36 preferred.
• Sewage: 24 to 36 inches in most parts of the country.
• Water: 36 inches is national standard; can be any depth if not subject to freeze.
• Telephone: If line is in conduit, can safely be at any depth; without conduit, should be at least 24 inches. (Ours is one to two inches under the soil surface and impossible to miss when digging.)