utility line issues are more about you breaking an electric line and electrocuting yourself ... while trying to plant something or doing without the phone or the cable for weeks while they fix it ... with todays underground cable pulling... replacement isnt all that much of an issue ... other than the wait ... and roots just arent going after your cable.. gas .... or electric.. they have no use for such ... but the one utility you never want to plant trees near.. is the septic .... now there is water and some rich food ... and usually a way into it .... if you are on sewer ... the issue would be whether you have the old clay pipes that leak ..into which the roots can go .. or whether you have a newer sealed up PVC system ... which would be impervious to roots ... i also want to know if they are dwarf trees .... good luck ken

I see what you mean about brown leaves until the plant reaches the fence, so I think you might be right about the heat. I think I might try a mounding clem between two of those and see what happens. I think no one can really tell you what will happen and this may be a time for some experimentation on your part. Are you sure the clems you have planted are only 8" apart? It looks like more to me, but maybe the photo is misleading. I've never overwintered clems in a pot in our zone unless they were buried up to the pot tops in soil, but when I've done that, I've had very good luck. Again, you may have to try and see what happens, but I wouldn't do it unless you can sink them somewhere for the winter.

Skimming here there are some things to think about The eye sore part: -You can barely see the towers now so there must be some current trees between the house and the towers --but what if something happens to the trees? Disease, more development, the power people feeling the need to cut them down *I would definately try to get a handle on whether there is going to be more development between the house and the power lines -Will winter affect being able to see the towers? -Someone mentioned upgrading - you might want to call the electric company and get an idea of whether they will be upgrading - although it will be hard to find any office or employee that has a clue, you will have to have patience and persistance The risk thing - hard to know. When I was younger I used to worship at sciences feet. As I've gotten older I find scientists tend to be arrogant and absolute. When new findings throw out previous findings which is the nature of science, they don't even blink. They just tout the new findings as the now absolute last word with the same arrogance. I try to do research with information from all sides and apply some common sense and gut feeling. You have to do what feels right for you and don't let anyone make you feel bad for it. Resale - Given a choice I would prefer not to be near power lines. That is of course getting harder to do. You need to really evaluate the bigger picture of the areas people "like you" are looking at. Sounds like schools etc. are important. How many "good" neighborhoods in your price range are affected by a negative (hwy, power lines etc.) Do people have choices? Lkplatow comments: madmartian - I'm in surburban Philadelphia -- close enough to NJ to have the same problems I guess. Too much development, not enough land.... Really the elephant in the room everyone is ignorning is population growth. Although of course I realize a lot of people with chime in with population moving around - growth (whereever it happens) still is a bottom line problem.

IME having plants in a spot means that cats don't try to dig there, but I don't live in an area that has really high numbers of loose or feral cats. Perhaps after the holidays are over, you could cut branches from Christmas trees left by the curb and spread them anywhere there is bare soil. Another possible option - we also had a gizmo that was motion activated and battery operated that gave off an ultra sonic pitch that we set in places like the stove top where we didn't want our cat. Ours worked really well, and the cat soon habituated to not going in those places. Although ours was not weatherproof, when I just did a web search (ultrasonic cat repellent), I see they now make outdoor ones. This might make them find someone else's yard more appealing and get out of the habit of visiting yours. You could also try one of the sprays designed to discourage cats. It is an unpleasant aspect of having bare garden soil or mulch!