Ground covers over septic systems

[whatnow?]

Anyone have any experience with planting a groundcover other than lawn grasses over a septic drain field? My largest patch of unfed grass is over my leach field and looks bad. I'd like to use it for something else, like for some sort of feed grass for the chickens, (or maybe a deer attractant if I lose my mind) but the state guidelines have me fearing vermin or system failure.

 

[ams3651]

im thinking the same idea, more to cut back on how much grass i have to mow. I was thinking crown vetch or Vica? I was even thinking of making an "island" of dirt with large rocks and potted shrubs?

 

[patandchickens]

There are a couple minefields to negotiate if you're thinking of planting over the septic system:

You need to avoid ripping up or compacting the soil -- thus, clearing ground to grow vinca (which would probably get too much sun, as your leachfield is probably sunny, and is unlikley to form a dense enough cover to prevent lots of weeds from popping thru) or crown vetch might cause problems with the septic system while you are doing the conversion work. It would have to be done very carefully, by hand not machine. Also:

You need to avoid ever having bare soil over the leachfield. So with vinca or crownvetch or etc, you would need to plant *plants*, not seeds, and plant them densely so that they very quickly form a closed cover. THis would be expensive.

You need to keep the ground level where it is -- NO mounding dirt up on it.

Finally, you need to keep live plant cover over the leachfield and not smother it with mulch or rocks or gravel or pavement or anything like that. The plants are necessary to 'manage' the incoming moisture and nutrients from the leachfield. Kill them, and/or smother the space between some garden plants with a whole lot of mulch, and you risk problems.

The usual recommendation is that you grow only lawn or feral 'meadow' over your leachfield. Some people do have flowers successfully over the leachfield, but the only ones I know have had them there since the leachfield was first constructed. Personally I would hesitate to do it on an older leachfield, especially if I had ANY doubts as to its future longevity or current functionality. If I were going to try to plant a bed over the leachfield, I think I would do it piece by piece, not all in 1 year, and would skim off the turf by hand with my trusty breadknife ;P and then plant it with shallow-rooted garden plants fairly densely, using large mature plants, with only a light dusting of mulch in between.

Whatnow, can you just overseed with whatever it is you want (clover, other grasses, whatever), perhaps after raking the bejeebers out of the existing grass to open up sites for the seeds to get hold in? You won't get a monoculture but you might get something useable for your purposes.

Personally, given the cost of repairing or replacing a septic system, I choose not to mess with it

Pat, with a 35 yr old septic field that seems to be holding its own, despite some pines awfully near it, but not wanting to test exactly HOW holding-its-own it is

 

[whatnow?]

Raking and overseeding was what I had in mind, I just don't really desire maintaining a turf grass in the shade. I'm constantly conflicted between letting the grass grow to choke out weeds and keeping the multiflora rose at the woods edge at bay. Between the woods edge and the house is... the drain field.

I would love to try and get a crop of crimson clover going, but I have to admit that it would be way less practical than a perennial turf grass. I'm looking at different cover crops that I could mow in the fall for composting with my abundant leaf harvest. Crown vetch is banned from my yard... that stuff is tenacious and I'm still working on eradicating it. I hear the spring gobblers out in the woods... I wonder what they like...

 

[ams3651]

so I guess Im doomed to paying my cousin $20 every other week to come with his field mower I only have a push mower and its too much to keep up with in addition to the lawn. It is 35 years old and not giving me problems other than tall grass and snakes