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Organic Gardening

Gardening after sewer back-up ??

10 years ago

A few years ago, my subdivision was connected to the city sewer. When crews were working on the sewer lines, a line broke and backed-up in part of my yard.

I want to plant a vegetable garden and wanted to know how long I should wait before planting in that area? Also, I wondered if it was safe to plant over the area where the old septic tank is (it has been filled in with gravel).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tory
viboroff@yahoo.com

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Comments (4)

zzackey
10 years ago
Geez! I don't know! I would highly recommend you get your soil tested by the professionals at your local agricultural center. If you don't know where it is look in the phone book under the Dept. of Agriculture. Milorganite is made from human waste. Great for lawns but not for veggie gardens, IMO.
Kimmsr
10 years ago
You can follow the guidelines established by the Center for Disease Control, National Institute for Health, and the USDA about using animal manures and they say do not put manures on the garden sooner than 90 days before harvesting crops grown above ground or 120 days for root crops. If it has been a year or more there most likely will not be any pathogens present.
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Thank you Vith! Your answer was really helpful - and what I feared. Great advice! I didnt even think about the grading! I am not redoing this sewer line, so I will not expand that side of the house then. I had originally planned to install walls of glass (without bumping the walls out), but it was getting complicated and expensive with support beams and all, so I thought I would explore bumping the wall out while doing the addition instead. I think I will just look at dropping in 6 ft. sliders into the 6 ft. windows then. They are guest bedrooms, after all. Do you think I will be okay with putting little concrete or block patios out there over the sewer line?
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gardenlen
10 years ago
g'day tory,

"a few years ago?"

nothing to basically worry about then the soil worms and bacteria would have made any residue neutral.

might also have improved the soil.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens bale garden
User
10 years ago
Yeah, after a few years (heck, after less than a year in many areas) it's good to go.

If you're really concerned you can always put a couple of inches of straw mulch down around your plantings to prevent soil splash and wash what you harvest...dig around in your soil while wearing gloves...etc etc

That said, it's most likely (highly likely) broken down and actually provided a bit of nutrients to your potential garden area at this point.

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