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Clover over septic field. Good? Bad? Ugly?
Centipee also is a good choice. I mow only once every couple of weeks even in the spring.
The only problem with the dormant varieties in the north west is that the weed never really stop growing and may over take the grass.
Is there natural ground cover in your area? Salal would look nice and could become a second income if you have a customer for it, like a flower shop. It goes wild in B.C. and WA but I am not sure how far south it grows.
Deer ferns might be another option and can also be sold to flower shops.
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Clover over septic field. Good? Bad? Ugly?
I am not convinced that the Zoysia would over come the weeks. It certainly has not been the case in my lawn. In fact the centipee has grown in to the area I planted.
Salal grows up to about 1.5 feet high and should not put roots into the septic field. It is dark green and is used as greenery in flower arrangements. It has edible berries and small flowers like blueberries. There are a bunch of other ground covers that grow in that area.
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Clover over septic field. Good? Bad? Ugly?
I have never seen Salal in the wild over about 2 feet and I picked it for a while as did my brother.
Low bush blue berries would attact all types of wild life and would look similar but not in the winter. You might not want the bear either.
They call it deer fern but I am not certain that deer eat it.
I emailed you on the other info on OR macroman = peters
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Clover over septic field. Good? Bad? Ugly?
A number of people in B.C. gave up on grass and let the moss take over. They liked it as they never needed to mow and all they need to do was remove the odd weed.
Below is a post for BC government listing of native plants for the garden. Why buy when its on the web.
Peters
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Clover over septic field. Good? Bad? Ugly?
If you do not want to mow it I would stick with a natural ground cover like ferns or the Salal.
If the spot is shaded then the deer fern should grow well and look nice. I might scout around and find some on the road side and transplant to the area.
I would not grow tree as it is a little to dig up a section to fix or replace with trees over the area. I have had to help dig up a few that had the tree roots in the tile.
I am not sure I would go for some foriegn ground cover as we are still dealing with the mess left by the rail roads, Kudzu.
Murf is correct that Ont has determined that most of the water is removed through evaporation and design the new systems accordingly. As they have marginal soil on the Canadian Shield (all but a small southern section of the province) I assume they had to study the problem more than most. This is not the case in many states as they still rely on perk tests and soil composition.
I believe Ont found it is straight soil evaporation and I am not sure that the plants on the surface make any appreciable difference.
Willow and cotton woods will absorb a lot of water in the summer but will not absorb any in the winter. This is one of the reason that people have problem with their systems in the winter. This is not the time of year you want to try and repair they system. The roots on a willow will enter most system and cause problems.
The new style with the plastic covers like you have I am not sure of. I would think the shape would prevent roots from entering the distribution pipes.
I am currently 3 for 3 in terms of having my systems worked on at my houses in 3 different states. 4 for 4 if I added the cottage in Ont.
I have 2 systems here one for the garage and the other for the house. My field lines here are in the horse pasture. I regularly mow over them with my 65 hp tractor. I can easily tell where the lines are on the field in the summer as the grass stays a little greener over them. My tractor puts a lot less psi on the ground than a car or even the horses. I am not too worried about compaction, they have been there 20 years.
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