Planting over electric cables?

[sjgreener1]

We've recently had some armoured electric cables put in underground (in a protective tube) for a hot tub, however it's had to be positioned running about 50cm parallel to a fence that I had wanted to plant some hedging and shrubs along this fence for privacy.... will this still be possible? Would the roots be a danger and make this a safety hazard or will the cables be fine protected in its tube?

The plants I had in mind were Red Robins, Conitus and Ceanothus.

I'm a very novice gardener, so any advice or recommendations on what best to do here would be much appreciated.

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

Roots will often just grow around an underground obstacle, but not always. Predicting every vagary of what could happen in the years and decades to come with the roots of woody plants is not possible. The root systems of woody plants are roughly proportional to their above-ground mass. In other words, larger trees and shrubs will develop larger roots.

The question here is, as always, that of balancing risk and reward. A couple decades down the road may see a complete overhaul of the shrub, hot tub, or entire garden. Not every possible calamity comes to pass.

If I understand your plant choices correctly, Red Robin (Photinia x fraseri) in will eventually become a small tree, Smoke tree (Cotinus coggyria) as well, though usually less massive. The genus of Blue-blossoms (Ceanothus species and hybrids) can vary from small trees to low groundcover.

Ultimately, of course, the lowest risk plants would be smaller plants, but even mid-sized shrubs don't seem likely to cause too much damage. Consider vines for height and privacy, though large vines will have roots similar to trees and shrubs of comparable size.

 

[Ruderunner]

How deep are these cables?

In the US, things like that are generally 3 feet down or deeper.

 

[Sean Regan]

I laid a multi-core armoured cable from the house to the garage in 1978 between the house and the garage, before I had a concrete raft laid over which I laid a York stone patio. I didn't get round to using it until 1986 when I starting using it to control the lights in the garden.


In 1987 I built our summerhouse at the bottom of the garden and wanted to put power in it.
I passed cables through an alkathine pipe and buried it about a foot down in this border close to the little curtlage wall.
The ends of the pipe come up through the floor in the corner of both buildings and is quite visible. There's a tag on each end of the pipe identifying what it is.
The roots of this wisteria will have grown around the pipe, in the thirty years it's been there.

There's a dedicated consumer unit for the summerhouse in the shed and a double pole fused isolator in the summerhouse. There's a separate consumer unit for the garage for other functions (originally including all the stuff for a 3000 gall koi pool I've since closed down) plus the garden lights). The lot passes through an RCCB before its connection to a dedicated garage supply under the drive in the house consumer unit.
There's never been a problem with any of the electrics in the garden over thirty years. No exposed mains cables anywhere.

As has been said, you'll be OK with your planting.