shrubs appropriate for septic drain field?

18 years ago

I am looking for some suggestions for suitable plants to grow on top of my septic drainfield. The drainfield is situated at the edge of a woods, so the plants need to be natural in appearance and care requirement, not require supplemental watering, and, of course, have shallow root systems that won't interfere with the drain distribution pipes. I would love to plant yellow-twigged dogwood in this location -- but would it be suitable? I should also mention that I have a rambunctious dog and two rambunctious children. Tough plants are my best bet in this area. They are all likely to avoid woody shrubs, but more tender perennials are likely to be trampled.

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Comments (5)

Embothrium
18 years ago
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".
eric_wa
18 years ago
newgeneral, Try the link below. Plant list for drainfield.

Eric

Here is a link that might be useful: Drainfield Plants
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I'm in northwest Florida and looking to plant 3 or 4, depending on the mature width, shrubs under a bedroom window but near a septic system for a 3 bedroom 2 bath house. The previous owners had three azaleas under the window too cose to the house and they were never really full enough. One was planted directly next to the clean-out access that leads to the septic, not too smart. I have cut these down to the stumps as best I could. The total length under the window is about 15 feet wide. The septic tank is about 8 feet from the house and is off the corner of that 15 foot expanse under the window. About a year ago when the tank was pumped I looked into the tank and saw no evidence of any kind of root intrusion even with a philodendron planted just a few feet away from the tank The drain field would be 15 to 20 feet away from where I would like to plan these shrubs. I'm not too particular about what to plant and I might just plant more philo's because of the large established one is already there. However, I just want to make sure that philos are okay to plant or if any other species would be safe. Something at least 4 feet wide, dense, and mature under 6 feet or so even though everything would be cut back to no more than about 5 feet high.
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eric_in_west_seattle
18 years ago
I am not an expert on drain fields.

Grasses have shallow fibrous root systems. Also New Zealand Flax (phormium). There are many great ornamental grasses and numerous varieties of phormium.
silver_creek
18 years ago
By nature, the surface of the septic field is well-drained; many are even raised mounds of sand. We used a combination of drought tolerant evergreens, including Pachystima mersinites, Oregon Box, Mahonia nervosa, Creeping Oregon Grape, Arctostaphylos sp., Manzanitas, and Osmanthus burkwoodii, Fragrant Osmanthus, as a backdrop to a gravel mulched alpine garden. You didn't say how much sun the area got- ours gets full sun in the summer, with some winter shade from some evergreens to the south. The shrubs mentioned above are fine in sun or part shade.
newgeneral
Original Author
18 years ago
Silver Creek, your plant list sounds similar to what I had in mind. But I'd like something like yellow-twig dogwood for the color in the winter. The area gets morning thru early afternoon direct sun in summer. Sun/part shade plants should work well.

shrubs appropriate for septic drain field?

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Embothrium

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shrubs appropriate for septic drain field?

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