grass over mound??

[Ryan_V]

is it worth it not to mow the grass over my septic starting now in order for it to grow long in case we have a low snow winter in order to insulate it from the cold a little bit extra?? A couple years ago, we had no snow and a few days of temps in the -teens. I covered my system with straw, but was told that leaving the grass long would help as well...

[WaveWacker]

You can still cut it but maybe just leave the deck up a little higher. Really the only problem that may arise in freezing is as you stated, no snow cover and extreme cold temps however if you are using the system on a regular basis you still shouldn't have any problems. Most problems are from individuals that take off for a couple of weeks and have their system sitting idle and we have the conditions stated above. If if doubt however, leaving it grow isn't going to hurt anything.

[Huskie]

We've had trouble getting the grass to grow on our mound, especially earlier when it was so dry, any suggestions?

[WaveWacker]

No secret remedy here. Even though it is a little ironic to water your mound as you would like to keep the material in the mound and the ground under it as dry as possible in order to "soak up" the septage liquid, you could do some light watering. Probably the biggest thing is to not cut the grass as short on the mound itself.

One more major change that could be made is you could have more black dirt added over the top of the mound. Typically this is one thing that may be lacking from the install, not enough cover over the top of the mound and reseed. Current recommendations are 12-18 inches of cover. This allows the black dirt to hold the moisture instead of it just passing through to the rock/sand. Obviously I'd try the previous stated ideas first.

[tashit]

I am definitely no expert and have no experience with this, but I really don't see how letting the grass grow longer is going to add any noticeable insulation unless it's super long and falling over itself. I would say adding just a little bit of dirt would add much more insulation than the grass.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Quote:

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No secret remedy here. Even though it is a little ironic to water your mound as you would like to keep the material in the mound and the ground under it as dry as possible in order to "soak up" the septage liquid, you could do some light watering.

Probably the biggest thing is to not cut the grass as short on the mound itself.

One more major change that could be made is you could have more black dirt added over the top of the mound. Typically this is one thing that may be lacking from the install, not enough cover over the top of the mound and reseed. Current recommendations are 12-18 inches of cover. This allows the black dirt to hold the moisture instead of it just passing through to the rock/sand. Obviously I'd try the previous stated ideas first.

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The line that I highlighted is most true.

What alot of people don't realize, is that when they go over the mound, the mower (even a 21") is going to "bottom out" a little on the curve.

When I mow over mound systems, I'll raise the mower deck at least 1" when I mow.