Most of us never think about sewage. As long as it is working I’ve never given it a second thought. That all changed when we began designing our new house.
This week some of the land was cleared so that a septic inspection can be done. We are on hold until we receive the septic permit. You can see from the pictures, the front and highest elevation of the lot will be truly “green”. (I don’t know why this doesn’t get more play in the green movement.)
Scroll to the bottom of these posts to see more pictures.
I have finally come to terms with the inevitable scraping of the native vegetation. I’m done lamenting the invasion and have decided to research how I can best restore the natural landscape while keeping the integrity of the septic. (Do sewers have integrity?) Anyway, I did find out that no trees or bushes can be planted over a septic, but grassy, shallow rooted plants must be planted to absorb the moisture. I posed my question to Mr. Smarty Plants at the
http://www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=3139
He suggests a seed mixture from the Native American Seed company in Junction that is a mixture of 66% buffalo grass and 34% of blue grama. I’m not completely sold on this as I have heard many unfortunate stories about the propensity for weeds with buffalo grass. This spring I read that the
Buffalo and Blue grama are pretty grasses and range about 4-10" in height. They are probably better fit for dry to moderately dry soil conditions but should tolerate moderately moist soils. As steep as your property is overly wet soil shouldn't be a problem. Sideoats grama is pretty getting up to about 2 ft.
ReplyDeleteIf you think you will have consistently wet areas Bushy bluestem and Switchgrass like damp to wet soil but the latter grows up to about 3-4 feet.
I hope you can preserve much of your Bear grass.
Bill W.