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#1
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septic tank and tree
We have an old but still used, brick built septic tank in our front (north
ish facing but big enough to get sun in parts) garden. It may or may not have a small crack in it but the surveyor recommended the removal of the large weeping birch growing right next to it. Ideally we'd like to replace this with another more appropriate tree - smaller with blossom and/or berries. Any suggestions as to something which will not damage the tank - is there such a thing? If not then any suggestions for shrubs. Will perennials be okay? There are lots of "sticky up bits" and man hole covers out there which I hope to disguise or hide by putting a mixed bed around the whole affair but, as we need reasonably frequent access, I need to work round rather than over it all. Any suggestions will be most appreciated, especially of strongly but sweetly scented plants . -- Hayley (gardening on well drained, alkaline clay in Somerset) |
#2
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septic tank and tree
On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:09:58 GMT, "H Ryder"
wrote: We have an old but still used, brick built septic tank in our front (north ish facing but big enough to get sun in parts) garden. It may or may not have a small crack in it but the surveyor recommended the removal of the large weeping birch growing right next to it. Ideally we'd like to replace this with another more appropriate tree - smaller with blossom and/or berries. Any suggestions as to something which will not damage the tank - is there such a thing? If not then any suggestions for shrubs. Will perennials be okay? There are lots of "sticky up bits" and man hole covers out there which I hope to disguise or hide by putting a mixed bed around the whole affair but, as we need reasonably frequent access, I need to work round rather than over it all. Any suggestions will be most appreciated, especially of strongly but sweetly scented plants . Leave it there and let the tank crack a bit more. It saves having it emptied |
#3
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septic tank and tree
In article , Dave the exTrailer writes: | On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:09:58 GMT, "H Ryder" | wrote: | | We have an old but still used, brick built septic tank in our front (north | ish facing but big enough to get sun in parts) garden. It may or may not | have a small crack in it but the surveyor recommended the removal of the | large weeping birch growing right next to it. Ideally we'd like to replace | this with another more appropriate tree - smaller with blossom and/or | berries. Any suggestions as to something which will not damage the tank - is | there such a thing? If not then any suggestions for shrubs. Will perennials | be okay? There are lots of "sticky up bits" and man hole covers out there | which I hope to disguise or hide by putting a mixed bed around the whole | affair but, as we need reasonably frequent access, I need to work round | rather than over it all. Any suggestions will be most appreciated, | especially of strongly but sweetly scented plants . | | Leave it there and let the tank crack a bit more. | It saves having it emptied Well, yes. The surveyor is a clot. If the tank is suspect, removing a large tree next to it is extremely likely to cause it to fail. In any case, leaks from septic tanks are only an issue if they go into a watercourse and/or you use really nasty chemicals. If there is a reasonable distance of soil to any watercourse, and the contents are good, honest shit, the birch will simply mop up the leaks. Get a second opinion - from someone who has been around a while. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#4
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septic tank and tree
On 3/3/06 12:09, in article , "H
Ryder" wrote: We have an old but still used, brick built septic tank in our front (north ish facing but big enough to get sun in parts) garden. It may or may not have a small crack in it but the surveyor recommended the removal of the large weeping birch growing right next to it. Ideally we'd like to replace this with another more appropriate tree - smaller with blossom and/or berries. Any suggestions as to something which will not damage the tank - is there such a thing? If not then any suggestions for shrubs. Will perennials be okay? There are lots of "sticky up bits" and man hole covers out there which I hope to disguise or hide by putting a mixed bed around the whole affair but, as we need reasonably frequent access, I need to work round rather than over it all. Any suggestions will be most appreciated, especially of strongly but sweetly scented plants . The first thing, which I'm sure you will have thought of, is "is it safe for people walking around and over it?" And the second thing is, I wonder if you could use pots and troughs which could be moved if necessary? This might enable you to plant up a collection of pots with plants that flower through the year, removing one lot as the plants die off and replacing them with the next in succession. -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon ) |
#5
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septic tank and tree
In message , Dave the
exTrailer writes On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:09:58 GMT, "H Ryder" wrote: We have an old but still used, brick built septic tank in our front (north ish facing but big enough to get sun in parts) garden. It may or may not have a small crack in it but the surveyor recommended the removal of the large weeping birch growing right next to it. Ideally we'd like to replace this with another more appropriate tree - smaller with blossom and/or berries. Any suggestions as to something which will not damage the tank - is there such a thing? If not then any suggestions for shrubs. Will perennials be okay? There are lots of "sticky up bits" and man hole covers out there which I hope to disguise or hide by putting a mixed bed around the whole affair but, as we need reasonably frequent access, I need to work round rather than over it all. Any suggestions will be most appreciated, especially of strongly but sweetly scented plants . Leave it there and let the tank crack a bit more. It saves having it emptied I am not sure that is a good idea. After a while, if you don't have it emptied, everything goes solid. I know from experience - when we moved into a house in Hatfield Heath in 1980, the tank at the front of the house (there were two) had not been emptied for over 15 years. It was quite a job to clear it. After that, I had it done once every year or two and it didn't smell in the slightest - even when you stuck your head right over the open manhole. (OK - it's an odd thing to do. There are some funny folk about The tank at the back of the house was emptied regularly but tended to overflow into the cottage at the side, which was most unpleasant. We had some wonderful rhubarb growing right next to it. -- June Hughes |
#6
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septic tank and tree
"H Ryder" wrote in message ... We have an old but still used, brick built septic tank in our front (north ish facing but big enough to get sun in parts) garden. It may or may not have a small crack in it but the surveyor recommended the removal of the large weeping birch growing right next to it. Ideally we'd like to replace this with another more appropriate tree - smaller with blossom and/or berries. Any suggestions as to something which will not damage the tank - is there such a thing? If not then any suggestions for shrubs. Will perennials be okay? There are lots of "sticky up bits" and man hole covers out there which I hope to disguise or hide by putting a mixed bed around the whole affair but, as we need reasonably frequent access, I need to work round rather than over it all. Any suggestions will be most appreciated, especially of strongly but sweetly scented plants . -- Hayley (gardening on well drained, alkaline clay in Somerset) It sounds like the tank is on its way out and it certainly should *not* be leaking. Replace it with a plastic job and keep the tree. |
#7
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septic tank and tree
In article , "Rupert" writes: | | It sounds like the tank is on its way out and it certainly should | *not* be leaking. Replace it with a plastic job and keep the tree. Yes, very reasonable, and almost certainly the best strategy if constrained to fix the problem. Now, let's ignore the official requirements of a septic tank, and think of the scientific ones. What damage does a moderate leak in a septic tank do, if the tank is well separated from a watercourse and contains only sewage? The water will be cleaned up by filtering through the soil. So it really doesn't matter. Note that I am not saying there is no harm, but I am unable to think of any. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#8
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septic tank and tree
"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message ... In article , "Rupert" writes: | | It sounds like the tank is on its way out and it certainly should | *not* be leaking. Replace it with a plastic job and keep the tree. Yes, very reasonable, and almost certainly the best strategy if constrained to fix the problem. Now, let's ignore the official requirements of a septic tank, and think of the scientific ones. What damage does a moderate leak in a septic tank do, if the tank is well separated from a watercourse and contains only sewage? The water will be cleaned up by filtering through the soil. So it really doesn't matter. Note that I am not saying there is no harm, but I am unable to think of any. Regards, Nick Maclaren. For you and for me a leaking sceptic tank is not a problem but it's not the most attractive feature of a property. My advice was to replace the thing now with plastic as a good alternative to chopping down the tree. Dunno about health hazards . Most unlike you to flaunt official rules:-) |
#9
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septic tank and tree
In article , "Rupert" writes: | | For you and for me a leaking sceptic tank is not a problem but | it's not the most attractive feature of a property. If it's a minor leak into the soil, nobody will notice, except by the luxuriant growth around it :-) I agree that OVERFLOWS are unattractive. | Most unlike you to flaunt official rules:-) I think that you are confusing me with someone else! I quote them often enough, but I don't know where you got the idea that I follow them from. Regards, Nick Maclaren. |
#10
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septic tank and tree
Rupert wrote:
For you and for me a leaking sceptic tank is not a problem but it's not the most attractive feature of a property. My advice was to replace the thing now with plastic as a good alternative to chopping down the tree. Dunno about health hazards . Most unlike you to flaunt official rules:-) flout (presumably). -- Chris Green |
#11
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septic tank and tree
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#12
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septic tank and tree
My advice was to replace the thing now with plastic as a good
alternative to chopping down the tree. I seem to have missed a few posts somehow (probably my attempt to avoid the "junk" from earlier in the week) so did not get teh original of this. However we have looked into replacing tank but can not afford to for several years. Also the current tree is past its best and, in the opinion of everyone who has seen it, probably was not ideal for the position anyway. -- Hayley (gardening on well drained, alkaline clay in Somerset) |
#13
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septic tank and tree
wrote in message news:44086069.0@entanet... Rupert wrote: For you and for me a leaking sceptic tank is not a problem but it's not the most attractive feature of a property. My advice was to replace the thing now with plastic as a good alternative to chopping down the tree. Dunno about health hazards . Most unlike you to flaunt official rules:-) flout (presumably). Chris Green Yes sorry about that .Flaunting my lack of knowledge of English. |
#14
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septic tank and tree
It sounds like the tank is on its way out and it certainly should *not* be
leaking. just to clarify the tank is not leaking (we have had many people looking in and around it), we were just told that there may be a minor problem with the brickwork which the tree could "get into" and then cause the tank to crack and leak. We are intending to have it replaced but not for a few years, we just want to get rid of the tree, partly because of the potential problem and partly just because it doesn't "do" anythign for the garden - whilst I am a firm believer in teh fact that trees are good I also have a finite sized garden and would rather replace this particular tree with something smaller and more interesting! It is not a venerable old oak, just a boring, rather sickly looking birch So, can any one suggest something which is unlikely to damage our tank please? -- Hayley (gardening on well drained, alkaline clay in Somerset) |
#15
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septic tank and tree
"H Ryder" wrote in message ... It sounds like the tank is on its way out and it certainly should *not* be leaking. just to clarify the tank is not leaking (we have had many people looking in and around it), we were just told that there may be a minor problem with the brickwork which the tree could "get into" and then cause the tank to crack and leak. We are intending to have it replaced but not for a few years, we just want to get rid of the tree, partly because of the potential problem and partly just because it doesn't "do" anythign for the garden - whilst I am a firm believer in teh fact that trees are good I also have a finite sized garden and would rather replace this particular tree with something smaller and more interesting! It is not a venerable old oak, just a boring, rather sickly looking birch So, can any one suggest something which is unlikely to damage our tank please? -- Hayley (gardening on well drained, alkaline clay in Somerset) Yes sorry we got carried away talking about poo. Try this site to select exactly what you want (alkaline soil). http://www.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantselector/default.aspx You can always place a root barrier in the ground which will stop penetration of the septic tank. |
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