Garden near septic field?

[Hep44]

We have a 2 acre lot that is mostly trees, so little room to plant a garden. I was wondering how close it can be to our septic field and still be safe?

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Wow, what a great question. I am so sorry I don't have an answer for you, however I am looking forward to finding out the answer. Hopefully someone will have an answer in a day or two.

 

[raingarden]

The rule of thumb is that pathogens are filtered out over thirty feet. That is for contaminated water in the ground that you would not want to drink. But, if roots come into contact with pathogen contaminated ground water they do not move the pathogens up into the vegetative and fruiting parts. It could be more of a concern for root vegetables (carrot, potato, etc), but root vegetables are usually just below the ground level with root hairs extending downward.

 

[gtaus]

Interesting question. I looked online and found one source that said you could plant a garden 10 to 20 feet from the perimeter of the septic field.

If you are really concerned about potential contaminants, then might I suggest building raised beds above the soil and then you would not have to worry about it at all. This year I built a couple of hügelkultur raised beds which are 16 inches deep. The bottom 8-10 inches are filled with old rotting wood and such, and the top 6-8 inches I filled with good topsoil and compost mixed 1:1. Those new raised beds are really working well for me this year.

 

[Hep44]

Thank you for the replies! We do have 2 raised beds right now, but they are pretty small so I was hoping to do a garden in the ground as well for anything that spreads or takes up a lot of room. I think I will definitely put the root vegetables in the raised beds though, that was a good point

 

[gtaus]

I was hoping to do a garden in the ground as well for anything that spreads or takes up a lot of room.

I really like Buttercup Squash, but it will take over the entire garden and choke off everything it overruns. So this year I tried something different. I had an old tire sitting out in the junk pile and decided to put it into the backyard. I filled it up with some good top soil and chicken run compost mixed 1:1. I planted two Buttercup Squash plants in the tire and they are growing like mad. The plants are spreading out over the backyard, but that is OK with me. The grass under the squash vines is still growing well so it looks like there will be no damage to the yard. The only place that I would have to reseed grass would be directly under where the I placed the tire. But, I will probably keep the tire there for next year, too.

I did not want to build a raised bed for the squash. That is a lot of work for a plant that would quickly overrun the raised bed and continue to grow. I live on a lake, and my sandy soil is not very good. Using the old tire and filling it with a high grade top soil and chicken run compost took almost no time to set up and, so far, I am really happy with the results.

Again, in your situation, if you are concerned about contamination from your septic system, growing plants in old tires might be an option to consider.