Progress on my home’s new shade garden is slow and sure — with only a few days left to my daughters’ summer vacation before school starts, I’ve been squeezing in as many hours in with my kids as I can.
Well, progress on the garden was going well, until I made a major mistake late last week. Many of us have heard the warning to “call before you dig” before setting a spade or any other type of shovel into the earth at one’s home.
I learned that lesson the hard way late last week when my spade sliced a Verizon wire. Even though I was only digging about 6 inches into the earth to remove the sod from where I want my shade garden to be, I was unlucky enough to hit the cable that supplies our house with cable TV, Internet and our phone services. Luckily, Verizon was out the very next morning (great service!) and installed a temporary cable, so we only had to do without Internet access, our home phone and TV for just one night.
Some of the new utility markings in my home’s yard.
So now, my home’s lawn now sports markings showing where all the utilities — including Verizon, natural gas, etc. — run underneath our property. I’ve already taken photos of them, to give me an idea of where they are.
I’d better finish up that shade garden before the markings are gone, so I won’t have to put in another call for them –from now on, I will always be sure to call (and find out where the utilities are beneath the surface) before I do any landscaping around my home!