I have had three homes with a septic tank in the front yard, including our current home. In most of the homes, terrain dictated that the septic went in front. However, there were no pipes sticking up out of the ground in any of them. There weren't any aesthetic issues, unless you count strips of green grass outlining the drainfield during a drought.

What are these pipes for? If they aren't part of the drainfield, could they be hidden by some strategically placed shrubs?

I have no pipes in my yard either. Newer tanks do tend to have an output filter but installers till tend to bury them completely. I asked that an access hatch for mine be installed flush with the soil. It's about a foot in diameter and painted green. No worse than the in-ground lawn sprinkler boxes that are spread around as well.

The only thing in my septic system in two houses that appears above ground is the pump chamber in my Virginia house. If your yard doesn't slope right then that might be a consideration. It's pretty stark ugly concrete, but we painted it green and my wife landscaped all around it.

We do have the caps and pump in the front yard We painted the caps and put rocks in front of the pump and planted day lilys. You do need to be aware of what you can and can't plant near your system and also provide access for maintenance.

Your area regulations may differ, but here are Minnesota's in the link. Hope this is helpful.

Jill

Here is a link that might be useful: Landscaping Septic Systems

Our tank is on the side and is not visible at all. No pipes, no caps, etc. When it needs to be pumped we need to dig up a very small area (by shovel, no machinery needed). The pump is in a pump chamber that is part of the tank.

The tank at our old house was in front of our house and we just made a landscaped island over it and no one knew it was there. In Wisconsin you can't bury the access points (size of a manhole cover)to the pump chamber and one other chamber (we had three chambers and were allowed to bury one of the access points), but you can cover them with mulch. The reason that you can't bury the two access points is that you need to be able to access them in winter when the ground is frozen in case you have a problem with your tank or system. A friend of ours had their septic field fail in the winter so they had to use their septic tank as a holding tank and get it pumped often until spring when they were able to put in a new septic field.

At our last house, it was in the front yard. We just had to be able to access the pumpout place, which was hidden behind landscaping. Other than remembering where not to plant trees and other deep-rooted plants, it shouldn't be a problem.

If you have exposed pipes, check out the hollow landscaping rocks -- we used one to cover our well access and put real rocks and perennials around it -- I was surprised how natural it looked.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had shrubs over the septic tank at our old house. At our new house, we have a perennial garden. I have pictures in the link below. We will be adding more mulch to bury the one access manhole that is showing in the picture. Our back yard is still a work in progress, but we did the septic tank first because we wanted to hide it. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Perennials over septic tank