What to do with my septic mound?

[lindy rig]

It's not really a big mound.... it's an at-grade system but does have a slight mound. Anyway, the previous owner had a bunch of flowers planted, ect, but it's mostly weeds now. There is some landscape boulders around the edge.

I want to make it as low maintence as possible.

Thinking of Round-Up the whole area, but then what to do with it?

Does anyone know of a decent "ground cover" that will take over the area, stay pretty low to the ground, won't let weeds in, and look OK?

[Tom7227]

Why not try and rejuvenate the wildflowers? Prairie Restoration in Scandia can help you with seed or plant selection. Doesn't get any more maintenance free than that once you get it going.

[delcecchi]

It's not really a big mound.... it's an at-grade system but does have a slight mound. Anyway, the previous owner had a bunch of flowers planted, ect, but it's mostly weeds now. There is some landscape boulders around the edge.

I want to make it as low maintence as possible.

Thinking of Round-Up the whole area, but then what to do with it?

Does anyone know of a decent "ground cover" that will take over the area, stay pretty low to the ground, won't let weeds in, and look OK?

Snow on the mountain.

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornament...ntain-plant.htm

[lindy rig]

Thanks for the input guys. My MIL actually suggested the snow on the mountain too. Looks like a good option if I go the ground cover route.

Not sure what to do. There is already a lot of landscape at the new house to try and keep weed free, I don't really want more. I would just assume cover the whole septic area with fabric and mulch....... but our sprinkler system covers the whole septic area really well and I just don't think it would take long for the weeds to come back with all that water.

[delcecchi]

sprinkler on septic mound is counter productive. You are trying to get rid of water and sprinkler is adding water.

[jjz]

Why not seed it for grass and get rid of landscape stuff. A lawn mower will not cause any problems for the drainfield and mowing is easier/quicker than weeding. Plus you can let the grass grow longer in fall to provide insulation for winter, to minimize freeze ups.

Good Luck

[JeffB]

sprinkler on septic mound is counter productive. You are trying to get rid of water and sprinkler is adding water.

I wish mine had sprinkler system covering it, due to all the sand and rock they use it is always so dry from mid summer on the grass nearly dies and you don't have enough vegetation to insulate it from the frost. You don't want it wet, but brown isn't great either.

[lindy rig]

To clarify, my drainfield area is grass and I mow it.

What I am talking in this post is the area above the holding tanks. There is two concrete covers for access to pump out the "solids" and a box with a light on it to alarm if problems. It's probably a 15' x 30' oval shape. Boulders around the edge and flowers (weeds) in the middle.

Guess I'll just have to deal with it and re-plant something.

[delcecchi]

For that application, I recommend a ground cover. Actually, Day Lilies would work also, and be quite pretty all summer. Or snow on the mountain as I mentioned before.

Stella de oro day lily is a good variety

They take no maintenance and they multiply.

[MuleShack]

I turned our tank are into a rock garden. Still accessible. Put fabric down under mulch.

[delcecchi]

Looks great. I went with suggesting the easy cheap solution, cuz that's how I roll.

[lindy rig]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Both the day lilys and the rock garden pics look great.

We're actually going to do some type of combination. I've been pulling out weeds and the old fabric (big pain). I'm going to leave a chunk of wildflowers in the middle, add a couple day lilys, and then surround the edges with a ground cover that we found at a local nursery. I forget the name, but it's only about 4" tall, flowers once in spring, and will spread. I know it will still take maintenece (sigh) but hoping it will look much better than it does now and maintence will be limited.

[311Hemi]

Put fabric down under mulch.

I know there are opinions on either side of this one, but what is your reason for this?

If you put down fabric and have 4" of mulch on top, the mulch on the bottom turn to dirt anyways and you will still get weed growth eventually? Plus, it makes moving plants in the future more of a pain.

FYI, we don't use fabric under mulch in our landscaping and most of the weeds I see growing are growing in he mulch and not the dirt below so fabric would not help in this situation.

[jjz]

You could make this area grass as well. Sounds like it might take some material to make it ok for mowing, but might be worth it. Most septic haulers I know hate dealing with tanks in flower gardens etc... Usually charge a little more because of extra effort required to make sure they don't damage anything/find lids.

good luck