Are you planning an outdoor landscaping project that involves digging? You may be tempted to get out the shovel and start moving dirt right away. After all, there's probably nothing under your yard, right?

Don't do it! Your property may contain underground utility lines. Before starting any project that involves digging, you need to be certain that you know where lines are buried so you can avoid injury, service outages and costly repairs.

Call 811 a few days prior to digging and you'll be routed to your local call center. Tell the operator where you'll be digging, what type of work you're doing and when. Within a few days, your local utility companies will visit your site and mark the location of any underground lines, free of charge.