The home that John and I are looking to purchase has a septic system. I know very little about these systems so I thought I'd look up some more information. I found this diagram that shows a little about how it works. I looked this up for a couple of different reasons.
The first reason is I want to know the "don'ts" of a septic system. Looks like I am not supposed to use bleach or drain cleaners. Ugh. No bleach? Guess I'll be looking for some alternatives. Not only do I use it for laundry purposes, I also am a big fan of cleaning with bleach.
Also, I shouldn't use a garbage disposal to dispose of waste food. (Good thing we'll have chickens!)
And, I shouldn't dump cooking oils & grease down the drain.
Okay... good information. Now I know what not to do.
Looks like I should have my tank checked every year by a pro. We will have to schedule that when we move in. We will have to have it pumped out every few years and that will be approx. $200-$300.
The other reason I wanted to look up information this morning was to see whether or not we can plant a tree on or near the leach field. I found this site that has some good information. It kind of scares me to plan on/near it but I really, really want a big tree to look at out my front window.
This is the big window in my front room. It just cries out for a tree out there... What do you think? Maybe I'll just plant a wildflower field... It is really too bad, because we really wanted to plant a hackberry tree. I guess that will have to happen somewhere else on the property.
Looks like the best time to plant flowers on a leach field is fall so I should plan on getting that done as soon as we move in.
