Vegetable Garden & Septic Tank ?

Hi everyone, I'm kind of a newbie, so please bear with me as I learn from all of you.

We just had a house built in country. Our septic lateral lines took up almost all of
our side yard where I wanted a garden.

The septic installer told me that you could garden right on top of the lateral lines.

I' m kinda skeptical about that though. He said that as long as no one in our house
took Digitalis heart medicine, that it would'nt be bad, and all the impurities would
leach out before reaching any vegetable we planted. Hmmmm.

Has anyone ever heard of this ? What do you all think ? I'd really like to hear your
opinions since I really don't know . I grew up in the city where there is a sewer system
that takes everything away from the yard. I'm new to this septic tank thing. I really
love to garden, but I don't want to grow something that's not good or safe to eat.

Waiting to hear from you all. :) PeggieK

Well, Peggy, you can hear opinions from one extreme to the other.

Course, the experts from the health department would tell you to not plant there. They don't care whether you have a crop or not, but they must play it safe.

Ideally, you would have two systems....one for kitchen, laundry, and water softener and the other for bathrooms. If your septic field is heavily used, oozing green water, full of grease and such, I would not plant anything but grass there. I would tend to stay away from root crops there too. If your field is dry, I would not be afraid to plant a few feet away.

Hope this helps.

I would not plant root vegetables or green leafies like lettuce, Fruit types like tomatoes, eggplants or beans I might consider.

I've been told, & have read in different gardening tomes, that it's an extremely risky proposition healthwise to have a garden of edibles on or near a septic field. For anything, regardless of vegetable type.

Really - just think about it. Vegetables have an extremely high percentage of water. Where is that water coming from & what's in it?
To be frank, even if someone credible told me it was completely safe, I'd have trouble flushing my toilet & then going out to pick some lettuce & tomatoes. Just the mental picture would ruin it for me.

In addition, you really are just supposed to have lawn grass over your septic field, & also are not supposed to be digging/tilling over it constantly. I think you're just asking for lots of trouble both human healthwise & septic system healthwise by planning a garden on it.

Thanks, I kinda thought the same thing. Since veggies are mostly
made up of water, I would have a problem mentally about it.

Although, as I've been told more than once, that once the liquids
pass through a certain amount of rock / soil etc., that it is
purified naturally. Makes sense to me, but still, I'm one of those people
who has to know for sure before I would want to chance it.

Our next door neighbor has a water well, and they use it for all their
water needs, drinking included. Even that makes me squirm a
little. One has to wonder, which is worse for us healthwise,
the water they get from their well, or the stuff that our water district
adds a bunch of chemicals to before they sell it to us via our
rural water lines. If I get to thinking about it too much, I could get
all goofy about what to drink.. I only will drink water that goes
thru my refriderator filter now. The more I know, the less I know.

Also, I get to thinking about food that is served in restaurants
etc. (Who handles it, did they wash their hands, do they have
a cold, etc. etc. LOL. I guess I don't need to add my own
garden vegetables to that list of suspicious items, do I ? LOL
I worked in a cafeteria/ restaurant when I was in high school, and
I saw "way too much". of how things are done. Makes me really
appreciate our good old down home cookin at home.

Thanks for the info. on septic , it just confirmed to me what I already
think I knew in my own heart. Sometimes the septic installers
might just tell me what they think I want to hear.

Living & learning...........................PeggieK

Yes, it's supposedly true about the "natural purification", BUT also keep in mind what happens when something goes awry with the system, which does sometimes happen. Ever get a whiff of that? It ain't pretty. And you have to wonder how long it was "stewing" beneath the ground before it rose to the top. I'd probably be swearing off garden vegetables completely if I walked out & saw my tomatoes & eggplants swimming in that - lol!!

Again, I think that the type of soil, the amount of volume of effluent, the amount of grease, soap, and chemicals, the capacity of the system, and the amount of healthy bacterial and enzyme activity going on in the system all affect how you should deal with the area around septic fields. Not everyone has 6 acres.

Good point. We only have 1 & 1/4 acre, so ..... 400 ft of lateral lines
take up a lotta real estate. There's only 2 of us that have ever lived
here since septic was installed. We are in our 50's and so are fairly
conservative, water wise. I hardly put anything down disposal because
the chickens and compost pile get most anything left over. I don't ever
put grease down drain, and use bleach very sparingly so as to keep
bacteria proper in septic system. Our tank is a 1,000 gal., so I
would think it would be adequate for us, So far it seems to be
pretty efficient, but that's about all I know about it.

When we got a permit to install it, they made sure we were at least
100 ft. from the neighbors' water well. They have their well almost on
the property line between us and them, but they've been there for 20
years and we just bought this property a couple years ago.

Still living & learning..................................... PeggieK

On the septic issue: Definately sounds too icky for veggie growing. Maybe some shallow rooted ground cover?

By the way, too many roots going down into the drain field will eventually clogg it. Once inherrited an older drain system with a very nice stand of wild flowers and very small shrubs on it (Mother Nature was in the first stages of reclaiming the yard and picked the most nutrient laden spot to start with). Was good for the wild plants, but proved much head aches for the humans.

Spacing out your water "dumping" into your system will also help the efficiency of your septic. i.e. don't save all your laundry to do 5 loads in a row on a Saturday afternoon as that dilutes the "good" bacteria and also cause more "turbulance" in the settling chambers. I've heard that spacing out the loads by even 1 hour will help keep the bacteria growing well and the turbulance down. (By the way, you're supposed to be In The Garden on a Saturday afternoon, anyway :-)

PS - you don't need the fancy "additives" for your septic - the good bacteria are already in what goes down the drain - they just need the nice (icky) environment in the septic to thrive.

On the well water issue: We have our well water tested every quarter for heavy metals, various live ickies like E. Coli, cysts and other biological contaminants, and for various "standard stuff". I have a filter on the fridge for ice & cooking water that also traps much of that stuff... but must admit, for drinking & making stuff that doesn't get boiled, we mostly use bottled water. If our water here didn't smell funny (although technically totally safe to drink), we might use more of it for "non-boiling" use. The dogs seem quite healthy on drinking nothing but unfiltered well water for 3 months now.

I have only two words of advice... Raised beds.

:) Melissa

Hmmm, raised beds ? I actually prefer to grow stuff in raised beds because I can amend soil better. Most of the stuff I grew this past
summer was in raised beds, although not near the septic. My raised
beds are about 6 inches tall. Is that high enough to be safe above
the septic ? Dosen't water from ground (however deep) eventually
rise up thru soil in evaporation ? Seems like it might be able to come
up thru raised beds. Maybe it would be "more" purified by the
extended trip up thru raised beds?

peggie,
I don't know the answer to your question, but there is more horizonal movement of water in the soil if it is sandy. I am of the opinion that not much rises up if the soil is dry. If over septic soil is wet a lot, things are coming up. Is that harmful? ??????????????????????????

Good question Indy. So far we haven't seen anything wet out
there. We had such a dry summer here, we hardly even could
get grass to grow over the septic. I don't think our soil is sandy
tho. Maybe closer to a silty clay. Drainage is not too good,
they had to dig 400 ft. of lateral lines for septic. Out of the acre
by the house, that was the only place that perked good enough.
In veg. garden last spring, we thought it would NEVER dry out
enough to plant. Then once it did, bone dry and dusty. Strange
land. Soil test said not enough organic material in garden
area, just fine silt. PeggieK

I'm glad to see this thread. We're moving to a house with a septic system and I know next to nothing about them.

My first thought, as others mentioned, was to use raised beds for your edibles. Ornamental plants, who cares, as long as the tilling & etc. don't disturb pipes or drainage.

If you're really concerned about soil quality, you could actually place a barrier on the ground - concrete, thick plastic, etc. and build the bed on top, Square Foot style. Sure is a lot easier to tend than traditional garden styles.

I do plan to do this myself, though it'll probably take a couple of years to get the raised beds constructed. I want a LOT, so it'll be a gradual conversion. :)

Pkock - you definitely need to do a LOT more research into septic systems before you even think of installing a garden over one. If I were you, I'd specifically contact your local governing authorities about it. I think you'll be surprised what's allowed/advised & what's not. I speak from first-hand experience.

You definitely CANNOT put any sort of barrier over your septic drainfield - not even plastic. And I don't even think raised beds are advised or allowed. I'd be interested to hear where you got that information from.

In fact, if you do so, you could not only be subject to fines from whatever zoning/government office in your area regulates septic systems in your area, but would also run into a BIG problem should you ever wish to sell your house/property.

I guess I mis-communicated. I wasn't really talking about putting barriers or gardens directly *over* the septic field, but just in the general area. Other posters had raised concerns about growing vegetables anywhere *near* the septic area, not knowing for sure how far the contamination might reach.

But you're right, I do need to learn more. Never said I didn't! :)

Yes, water does indeed become purified as it percolates (leaches) through soil. That might sound gross until you think about what exactly constitutes "pure spring water." Ummmmm, that would be water that has trickled through the dirt into the ground until it hits aquifers, which are the source of underground springs that are tapped for the clean, pure and tasty "spring water" we buy in bottles.

If that sounds distasteful, take a tour of your local "water treatment facility" and see what happens to water from the time it leaves your house (via sewer lines) and returns through your tap. I'd drink "spring water" over tap water any day ;o)

Our septic system is in the front of our house, so I don't worry about it leaching into my vegetable garden out back. However, the previous owners put silver leaf maples near the leach lines, so we live with the knowledge that some day, those 40-foot tall trees are going to have to come out. (I'd encourage anyone with a septic system to avoid planting any trees or shrubs anywhere near your leach field or tank. ) We have some shallow-rooted perennials in a bed near the main line out to the tank, and grass over the tank and leach field. You do want grass or other shallow-rooted plants growing on your leach field, because their roots will help take up the effluent (waste water) you produce, as well as help keep rain water from filling up your lines.