Topic: planting on top of a septic drain field

[duh]

Hi all the septic drain field takes up the entire backyard at my new place.  Now I'm wondering how best to deal with it.  Currently it is dirt with a few lines of grass where the pipes are. 

I had thought that I would try to level it and then put the veggie garden back there.  But then I wondered if you cold pile a bunch of garden soil on top of it and put in corn, tomatoes, peppers and so forth.  Would the veggies be healthy?  Would the drain field still work?  Would the roots of the veggies interfer with the drain field?  Can anyone shed some light for me?

Would I be better of building a cutting garden back there.  If there can be any like of garden at all on top of the field. 

Thanks for the help.

[Tonya]

I would think the County extension office could answer that for you...I have no idea. I hope you can plant something back there!

[Dianna]

Duh, you would need to plant something that wouldn't have deep roots that would clog up your drain field. I don't think that I would want to try vegetables or fruits, though. Food crops could possibly be contaminated by the soil if the drain field isn't working the way it is designed to.

If you google "planting over drain fields", you will find lots of information on this. I did a lot of research when we first moved here because we have a leach/septic drain field, too. I still haven't planted anything over ours in the four years we have lived here, but we have lots of other land to work with, too....

Here is a good link with lots of useful information...

[duh]

Thankyou for the article that is exactly what I needed to know.  I guess I'll have a lawn of sorts whether I want one or not lol. 

[Firefly]

I have a large area on my property that is the leach bed too. It is new, installed 3 years ago. At that time , I talked to the contractor to see if it was okay for the kids to play on it. He laughed and said sure. He said after the first year, I could do most anything on it. Park cars on it, plant a veggie garden on it, play baseball , whatever, just no permanent structures or buildings and no trees. Veggie roots are not deep enough to even come close to where the leaching is going on.

This year we are planning our first veggie garden on it. We dug the first row last week. It is very sandy and we will be amending with compost and manure in the upcoming weeks. I am very excited about it.

The only thing I would recommend is having whoever installed it or if that's not possible , whoever you use to pump out the tank to come out and give you an inspection to make sure it is deep enough and working properly. That may have already been done, with all the inspections you had to have. The Realtor may know.

Good luck and happy growing!

[Patty S]

Firefly, that's my understanding of activities above a drainfield, too.  In Montana, that's all we had, cuz there are no sewer systems out in the country.  (We were also on a well.... best dern water in the whole state!)

They had to go 3 feet deep to lay the rock & perforated pipe for our drainfield, due to the ground freezing at 18-24" every winter.  (The licensed professionals who put in drainfields should know the code specs for their area.)  We planted gardens & even a tool shed above ours... once the drainfield becomes saturated, a new one must be re-routed from the septic tank outlet (which, in many cases, can last forever with the proper drainage... depending on the type of soil; the rocks that the pipe is surrounded with; whether or not it's on level ground, etc). Those pipes stay where they are, so there's no harm done by building light weight buildings (but not an entire house), or making a parking area there while it's functional... as long as you're not parking a loaded semi on it.  A tree is the last thing that should be planted on a drain field, for obvious reasons.

Our experience with drainfields became a nightmare, when we bought a house in October & had barely recovered from the expense of closing costs & moving, when in February, our plumbing started backing up & we were told that the drainfield was saturated! The new drainfield had to be dug on the opposite side of the house from the septic tank, so our entire yard (front AND back) was dug up with backhoes & we had 3 foot trenches all over the place.  Being the coldest & most miserable month of the year in Northern Montana, the work was slowed down significantly by snow that kept filling the ditches!   It took about 3 weeks to get it all done, so we could cook, clean, & take normal showers... & there was a new baby in the house during all this! That was in 1977, & it's my understanding that the darinfield is still holding up.

I loved country living, but one thing I can say for living in the city, is that we can put almost anything down the drain that we want to... plus, I can have a "mulcher" in my kitchen sink now!

[Jim]

As Patty said, the key here is to know the specifications of your system.  Growing anything but grass on our drainfield would be out of the question.  Due to the heavy clay in our soil, it did not perk well.  The system that we have has 5, 95 ft. drain lines that are only 16 inches deep.  That means that the bottom of the trench is 16 inches, 2 inches of chipped up tire and a 4 inch drain line surrounded by 2 inches of chipped up tires only leaves 8 inches of soil on top of the line.

This was the shallowest system that the engineer had ever seen but it works.  In our case we have plenty of space to do other things.  About the heaviest machinery we run across it is the tractor and I always make sure I don't drive with the weight on the drain line.

[duh]

Well I have some studing to do then.  I can see where two drain pipes must be because the grass is growing right on top of it in a straight line.  It looks pretty strange in a dirt lot to see them sitting there all lush and green.  My property is on a steep hill so the field is slanted down.  And of course I have no idea how deep the pipes are although I'm sure I could dig down beside one of the lines and see where I run into gravel.  I don't really need to though, I can just move my veggie garden over behind the shed and far enough down slope that I'm past where I think the actual septic tank is located. 

I think I'll do a winter cover crop this fall and see how it goes from there.  The septic system was built for a 3 bedroom home so with just me using it I don't expect to have a problem.   

[duh]

You know I just got an idea.  I could put a lightweight greenhouse on the drainfield.  I could use palets for the floor.  Heavy plastic for the walls and ceiling.  An aluminum frame and sawhorses and plywood sheets for the tables.  That's light enough that it could be moved if necessary right?  Or maybe I could use the pvc pipe like they did to create an outdoor room on one of those yard makeover shows I used to watch when I had satilite.  Hum, what do you all think?

[Dianna]

I missed that show, Duh, but am curious as to how they used the pvc pipe to create a room. That sounds very interesting...

I really like those yard makeover shows, too!

[Triss]

My FIL used that.  He sunk metal stakes in the ground and then put the PVC "poles" from one side to another in a U shape.   Covered the whole thing is heavy plastic and added a couple of doors.  It is very lightweight, would be easy to take down.  I will have to get a picture next time I am over there.

[duh]

The one I saw didn't stake it into the ground but that would probably be a good idea.  this one they made a box frame with the pvc pipe using elbow fittings for the corners and then they hung the curtain material from shower hooks.  And I believe but I'm not sure they weighted the curtains with fishing wieghts sown into the hem.  It looked really cool.

I'm thinking that if there is a 22 degree elbow I can create a ridge line for the roof so that any rain will run off rather than creating puddles on the "roof" 

I'm thinking 14 feet wide and about 20 feet long.  That way I can have a center plant area 4 feet wide and two feet wide plant tables on each "wall"  And I'm thinking about doing a column of pipe every 4 feet so that it is structurally sound.  I don't think I would want to run it the entire 20 feet and hope that the corners hold it all up lol. 

Anyway that is the current idea.  I'll have to price it out and see what the cost is.   

[duh]

I have an idea.  I may put a zen garden over the drain field tha should work.  A couple of inches of sand shouldn't hurt anything.