A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Septic problems,will need to dig up my garden now?

We are having sepic tank drainage problems and will need to dig it up to get it pumped out.UUGGHH! There is not a marker or cap above ground. We only have measurements from the house to go by. My one garden and pond is close by. The pond should be ok(there are fish in there and frozen water)if I cover it with plywood. There are perennials in the area we need to dig up. The ground is for sure frozen. We will have to have someone with a backhoe. Any suggestions for the plants? There is a clematis, balloon flowers,allium and cosmos seeds,cleome seeds. That's what I remember.

Oh I feel for you. I was considering a house and I decided not to buy it because it had a septic tank.

I would try to dig them up and put them in the biggest pot I could find. If you do not have pots. When you dig them try to get as much root as possible. You can also lay them close to the house put soil, leaves on top of and around the roots. The heat from the house will protect them.

Hi,

I feel I have to reply, because my husband and I just (last week) sold our septic tank truck. Don't EVER be afraid of a septic tank. You just have to learn how to do things correctly. Like, don't have trees growing around them too close, cause they will seek water and will head right towards the lines and actually break through the lines when they get big enough (endless source of nutrients then). Plus, when you do find the tank, put a riser on it, that way, the next time it needs pumped, you wont have to dig everything up again. A riser would just be a round concrete tube, with a lid, that you put on top of the hole and brings it up higher. Ask your pumper about it, he can tell you more. Plus, some hints in the household.......don't ever overuse your water all at once. Don't take marathon showers. Don't do all of your laundry at one time. Many of us women that have jobs away from home, tend to do all the laundry on Saturday when we are home. This is a huge strain on your system, and you need to, at the very least, give at least an hour inbetween loads, and better, not to do more then 3 in one day. Do a load early in the morning or late at night, instead. Plus, have your system pumped on a regular basis............about every 4 -5 years. Our township has just begun mandatory septic pumping every 4 years. Course a little depends on the household........is it one person, or many? You may think that pumping is expensive, but it is not. Around here (central Pa.) the rate runs between $175-200 for a 1000 gal tank (bigger ones would be more, as the pumper pays the dumping fee on cost per gallon). Compare that with a monthly sewer line hookup, right now, it is $52 a month. Now compare 4 years of that--$2496-- to one pumping in four years--$175. You see what I mean. Many people are also under the misconception that have a sewer line eliminates all of their problems...........believe me, you can still have problems with a sewer line. You must always be wise in how you use things.

Sorry about the soapbox-----felt I had to say my piece.

Good luck with your plants.

Carol

PS

Make sure that you well(drinking water) is nowhere near your septic tank. You would not want the well water to get contaminated.

Carol

We all have septics around here. Be careful with that backhoe...you could bust through your tank. DH was a septic installer for the past few years in the summer.

Move your plants if needed, they might not make it being dug out in freezing weather. Do you know how deep your septic is?

might think about just dropping in a new one some where else and leave everything as is

Ohhhhhhhhh, this is my worst fear...............we bought our house almost 4 years ago and still don't know exactly where ours is. Because of the lay of the land there is only 1 place it could be, and to get to it means ripping up my entire garden and 3 ponds OR cutting in a new drive up the side of the "mountain".

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!

Usually the grass is greener over your field bed. The septic container will be closer to your house.

good point tamara. i let the blackberries grow on mine. keeps everyone/everything else off it!

That is a good hint Tam, unfortunately it does not apply here...............the yard (if u want to call it that) slopes off quickly to the woods.........so this will always be a mystery to me. UNTIL I START TO HAVE PROBLEMS!

when we moved in here, part of my yard was on a wheat field, the other part faces some old houses that need to be tore down, anyway about 2 years after we moved in (because of driving the lawn mower over them the old sepctic tanks started making sink holes, so I have 2 of those on each side of my drive way

and that would be something to consider, if your house ids really old, you mayalready have more than one

Hey, is your tank steel or concrete. If it's steel it can be found easily with a metal detector. Your local DNR office will lend you one...

like I have said before--we lived on a farm using a septic tank--for about 25 years. The only thing DH ever did was either put sugar or Rid-X in the tank and clean out the weeds from where the laterals run in the pasture--(yea I know--I don't thnk they were put in like they were suppose to be--but it was like that when we moved there in 1980--& it was inspected-and we did not ever have a problem--now, the kitchen water ran to its own tank, but bath & wshing machine ran into the septic too.

& I washed as much as I wanted to, and as as often. I think the secret was the Rid-X.