I was telling an uncle about the concern of digging a conduit trench in my heavily planted garden (trying not to disturb the plants) to run electricity from the house to the shed about 35 feet away.
He said that you could run conduit on the ground (or barely cover it with mulch); no need to dig a trench and bury it. I am highly skeptical as I've never heard of this before nor can I find anything on it. He's done habitat houses.
Can you? I live in the US, Nebraska. It gets very hot and cold here seasonally.
Any tips on making a trench with a tight space?
Best Answer
With rigid or intermediate metal conduit ($$) you can follow code without going very deep - 6" under dirt, 4" under a concrete cover of at least 4" thickness extending at least 6" to either side. Unless you want a concrete path through your garden along the route of the conduit, that's not likely what you want.
Rigid and intermediate metal are tough enough that you won't likely damage them while digging with hand tools.
PVC needs to be 18" under unless concrete protected.
Table 300.5 of the NEC should clarify all that for you.