Life is a gamble and every action we take has some risk involved. Going to the store to buy your vegetables incurs the risk of being in an accident. Growing your own vegetables on a drainfield creates a possibility of bacterial or viral contamination and/or damage to the septic system. Here are some websites that say it's not a good idea to plant edible crops on drainfields. You will also find people who have done it with no adverse effects. The decision is yours. Weigh the odds and do what you think is right. As for me, I'd rather not eat anything grown on my septic drainfield and even though we are in the business, I wouldn't want to run the risk of causing a failure of the system for the sake of my vegetable garden. JMHO. http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2007/fs0732.pdf http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/qa/water0007.htm http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Resources/PDFs/CIS1027.pdf http://www.nsfc.wvu.edu/smart/training/toolkit/page2/onsite/Guide_SepticSystemOwner.pdf http://www.phd1.idaho.gov/home/publicinfo/documents/CareandMaintenanceofSeptic.pdf http://www.wichita.gov/CityOffices/Environmental/WaterQuality/Septic_Systems.htm

Any new, small plants can be expected to be damaged or destroyed by careless foot traffic. Dogs will also sometimes chew on them. Best to put up some fencing or other protection until shrubs large enough to fend for themselves. Twig dogwoods (Cornus stolonifera and relations) mostly grow large and sucker to form thickets, making them perhaps not the best choice. This depends on if you really need to keep large shrubs out of the area or not. Assuming you do, I would try small, compact twiggy things like the various Spiraea japonica cultivars (and maybe some other spiraeas), as well as shrubby potentilla cultivars (I have seen Potentilla fruticosa growing wild in the middle of a stream in the Rockies). These are comparatively inexpensive, easily found in nurseries and easily grown. However, being small and brittle they will work for you only if the foot traffic and rough-housing can be curbed enough to permit this. There are many other kinds of shrubs suitable for damp places, for example if you like winter stems the new Cornus sanguinea cultivars are hard to beat. Some others posting similar questions on this site have been told they didn't have to worry about their drainfield being adversely impacted, in which case you would only have to choose plants that seem likely to grow in that spot, same as any other planting scheme. I think this depends on the details of your particular setup. You might try searching GardenWeb for "drainfield".

I just moved into a new home and we have a septic system and drain field. I checked out the Virgina COOP Extension and they have good advice. But, my drain field is on my front lawn - and I know exactly where it is because when they seeded and mulched my front lawn, you can see where the drain field is because it was dryer and the seed didn't sprout as fast as other places. Our soil here is good but filled with small rocks. It has a lot of clay, but not as much as my old home. So far I'm planting shrubs and perennials near the house - which is over the pipe going out to the septic tank. I've also planted a Bald Cypress about 50 feet up hill from the septic tank cover and a Dawn Redwood about 70 feet up hill from the septic tank cover. I feel they are both far enough away from the drain field. I'm also planting some smaller varieties of maples at the end of my lot - and that's about 50 - 60 feet from the end of the drain field. From what I've read I should have no problems. The main drain field will only have grass over it - that's all. But if I have a problem with the grass there, I think I'll put in a bed of Daylilies or something that will cover and add beauty to the area. Good luck with your Chestnut tree - they are beautiful trees and I hate seeing it cut down, but if it's screwing up your septic system, you have to do it. Ken

The EPA and the CDC recommend 50 ft distance for a water well to a leach field. So if you are worried about contaminants to the corn roots that would probably be considered a safe distance. You should also consider that birds and other animals will deposit contaminants in your corn field. I would be more concerned about the vegetable roots getting into the leach lines. Three feet away would probably be a good distance if you worry about that. Or if you don't do a lot of worrying just plant non root vegetables ( no onions, carrots, potatoes) and enjoy the bountiful harvest. This post was edited by zeuspaul on Sun, Jan 25, 15 at 12:17