gardening on a septic system

by Dawn
(Spring Hill, TN)

Hello. This is my very first question about my very first garden... which doesn't exist yet, but hopefully soon will be glorious:). My family is moving to the country and living more simiply - including trying our hand at growing some veggies.

Part of this package is that we will have a septic system. I've never had one and don't have the faintest idea about them - but I plan to read up and do what's necessary. But before we buy this place, I want to make sure that we can even do the garden, since that's half the point of being out there. Is there a safe distance? What about neighboring systems? And thank you so much for this site. I'm overwhelmed with all that's out there and was hoping to find a go-to place for me and my daughter (7 years old) to use and this is it! And could you give me a starting place to begin my reading? Thanks so much!

Doug says that you *can* garden over septic systems because they're essentially water by the time they get through the septic tank and chambers.

But most people don't. The reason is that cultivating over top of one or digging is usually into sand and this isn't the best of soils for vegetables.

Also if you start digging down more than 6-8 inches you start running into pure sand and possible leach fields on older systems.

You're also compacting the soil over and around the bed if you're walking and gardening over top of it. This influences the oxygen movement in the soil and can influence the drainage of the tiles over time.

Then there's the "possibility" of roots going into the tile beds. You never want to have perennial plants or trees near a tile bed for this reason. Twice the distance from the trunk to the drip line (trunk to outer edge of leaves) of the *mature* plant is the distance for trees and shrubs. So a maple should not be planted within 75 feet of the tile bed. Or you get to use copper sulphate to clean out the roots on a regular basis.

Bottom line - the best thing for over top of septic leach fields is grass. Shallow rooted grass but not vegetable gardens with any kind of tillage or walking and soil compaction.