How to Grow a Garden Over Leach Fields
Many residential septic systems will include a drain field as a component of the system. Since the drain field is where all the waste water used by your home is drained into surrounding soil, it is crucial to prevent damage to your drain field since drain field failure can lead to foul-smelling and expensive repairs to the septic system. Properly landscaping over the top of the septic drain field is one of the keys to avoiding damage to the field. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
-
-
1
Choose grasses and shallow-rooted plants for a drain field garden. One of the easiest ways to damage your drain field is by planting trees and deep-rooted plants over the top of the drain field; when their roots grow into the drain lines, the lines fracture, causing drain field failure. Therefore, only grasses and shallow-rooted plants should be cultivated in a garden over the top of a drain field.
-
2
Select garden plants with minimal watering needs. One of the advantages to growing a garden over the top of a drain field is that plants will absorb moisture in the soil around the drain field, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the field; monitoring the health of the plants can also be used to monitor whether the drain field is working properly. But if you grow garden plants that need excessive manual watering, both of these advantages will be voided since manually adding water to the top of a drain field will not allow you to monitor moisture levels below.
-
-
3
Work the soil minimally when planting over a drain field. Depending on the exact design of the septic drain field, some components of the system may be as close as 6 inches to the soil surface. Therefore, never use a gas or electric tiller when preparing the soil for plants and manually work the soil as little as is needed to avoid damage to the drain field. With the exceptions of the above-mentioned guidelines, cultivating a garden over the top of a drain field is no different from cultivating a garden in other areas.
-
1
