Anything to be done in a percolation area?

missyfirefly

We’re purchasing a house and moving from city to county, back garden is a basic green field 0.3 acre, with some trees around the perimeter on two sides. We had our sights on turning about 40-50% of it into an ARK https://wearetheark.org, planting with native trees and plants and then letting the wild take over... Then Landscape the rest, trees, beds, veg patch, a nice meandering path and perhaps a lovely babbling water feature thrown in: who knows!... we can do what we like, right, it’s just a green field, only limit (apart from budget) is our imagination... well that’s the theory right...
Anyways, now that we are moving out to the country also means that the new gaff comes with its own waste water treatment facility (all alien to me)... anyhow, about 80% of the sizeable rear garden is a percolation area with pipe-work a mere 300mm below the surface, basically told that we can’t plant trees anywhere near the pipework, need to be wary of roots damaging the pipework etc...
So anyways, has anyone come across something like this before, is there anything that I can do that would turn this boring green field into something enjoyable for both nature and humans alike?

Extra info: septic tank and percolation area all installed about 8 years ago. House vendor has said that the system he installed is actually 50% larger than is necessary for the size of the dwelling was only told that by someone servicing it a few years after the installation. It’s huge... (but I’m no expert)

Of course the vendor says " percolation area & tank are twice the size needed for the dwelling". Utter codswallop.....its all dependent on size of family, bathroom & wastewater usage. A very environmentally aware widow will obviously only use/need a small " usage" as opposed to a family with teenagers that like 20minute showers & flush lav after every little weewee. As a very 'general' rule the larger perc area& septic tank the better.....apart from anything else the wider perc area will reduce necessity of emptying the tank frequently. Unfortunately, having pipework only 30cms below surface is an all too common issue in Ireland.... it became prevalent in celtic tiger ( build faster & cheaper) & will lead to frozen pipes in minus temps.

Do you have a good map/ plan of the pipework????.... I mean a real map....not vendor saying ' ah....it comes in over there then runs straight to tank". With a real map the outlay€€ for dropping( going deeper) pipework may not be too exorbitant.

secman

Percolation area will consist of several layers of sandy soil, gravel, stones and pipework. Totally unsuited to planting anything with deep roots. For the last 5 to 6 years we have sown wild flowers mostly a tall white daisy, poppies and let anything else like tall grasses, thistle grow there. Its 30 meters wide by 5 meters deep. Its our wildlife area from April to October, we then let it go to seed and cut it back hard in December to start all over again from early April. It stands out lovely against the mown grass around it.
The percolation area would be as prescribed by the planning regs so suitable for the property.

looksee

The area depends on the number of bedrooms, regardless of who lives there.

missyfirefly

Thanks folks,
After some research of planning permissions files, it does look to be larger that what was recommended, in a ‘site characterisation report’. The report also calls out that the drainage in the land is pretty ****e, so perhaps they took that into account too and spread it out over a larger area...

Anyways, @secman that is a really good idea with the wildflowers. Great tip!

Hocus Focus

I've often wondered if a percolation area like that would be suitable for growing vegetables, they do say that the water being percolated from the treatment plant is actually clean.

CelticRambler

Hocus Focus wrote: »

they do say that the water being percolated from the treatment plant is actually clean.

Yes ... that's the problem - the treatment system takes out all the best stuff!

I haven't read anything much about it being done in Ireland, but here in France compost toilets are getting very popular. Almost all the small and medium sized festivals have them now instead of chemical toilets; and there's quite a big move towards not using indoor/plumbed toilets at all for urination. Saves a fortune on water charges ... :cool: