What is safe to plant on a drain field without damaging pipes?

In the attached image I have marked underground waterpipes for both the well and whitewater septic system.
What I want to know is if I should avoid planting trees near the drain field to avoid the root systems damaging pipes. (You can kinda tell where the drain field is by the discolored grass in the satellite imagery).


What is safe to plant around/on the water infrastructure without damaging it.




Also there is a red elderberry that has done very well right at the end of the drain field, grew to about 8' x12' and fruited in ~3 years.

Yes. You should. My office has a lot of trees that have damaged the plumbing so badly it's going to cost thousands to fix. So don't do it!

If you have to dig it up to repair something, what would you rather be digging up?

Personally, I'd stick with herbaceous perennials and self-seeding annuals.

I want trees but I'm just not sure where the property can support trees.

The lower half of the property where there are not any water pipes is about 3 inches of gravel with an inch of compacted soil on top (like the drive way on the right side of the picture but with grass grown over it)

The side of the property with the pipes is much more suited for trees if it wasn't for the pipes.


Maybe I could get away with dwarf varieties of trees with shallow root systems or bamboo. I'm not so sure how deep the pipes are though.

I'm buying a house with a septic drainfield, and have been thinking about this, too.

My plan right now is to seed the scruffy existing lawn over the drainfield with white clover, and plant mostly ornamental/aromatic/bee-friendly perennials around the periphery. Just beyond that, along the fenceline, I should have a bit of space to construct a hugel berm and put in blueberries, currants, and/or gooseberries.

The best spot for me to plant fruit trees away from the drainfieldunfortunately happens to be where a gravel driveway used to connect to an adjoining property before the access was re-routed. It's got 50-something years of compacted gravel to contend with, and I suspect the surrounding soil is low in organic matter (other than a strip of woods, none of the plantings currently on the property are flourishing).

So this coming year is probably going to be a lot of mattock-and-shovel work so I can get that soil ready for fruit trees next year. I wish I could confidently plant fruit trees along the edge of the drainfield, but unless I go with super-dwarf varieties, I think I'm setting myself up for expensive trouble in the future. And eventually, I would want to reclaim the ex-driveway area anyway, so I'm just going to woman up and do it. Awful as I suspect it is right now, it really is going to be the best place on the entire lot to have fruit trees in the long haul. And in 5-7 years, with the worst of the work behind me, and seeing some literal fruits of my labors, it won't seem so bad. It's just getting there that will suck for a while.

I've considered doing raised beds along the fence line. Raised beds over the drain field (assuming they are made deep enough) could be an option, but then I'd still be adding in obstacles if the pipes needed to be repaired for any other reason.

Currently that whole field is dandelion, white clover and narrow-leaf plantain. But I'm not sure how far down the field is safe for food crops.

Probably better to not risk trees in drain field and just put them in the compacted gravel. Maybe renting a jackhammer could make digging easier.

T Simpson wrote:I've considered doing raised beds along the fence line. Raised beds over the drain field (assuming they are made deep enough) could be an option, but then I'd still be adding in obstacles if the pipes needed to be repaired for any other reason.

Currently that whole field is dandelion, white clover and narrow-leaf plantain. But I'm not sure how far down the field is safe for food crops.

Probably better to not risk trees in drain field and just put them in the compacted gravel. Maybe renting a jackhammer could make digging easier.

We're not allowed to do raised beds over the fields here, I assume there is some reason for that.

As to the gravel they will manage to root into it, I would pick trees on their own or very vigorous root stocks and expect them to grow as a semi dwarf.

T Simpson wrote:

The lower half of the property where there are not any water pipes is about 3 inches of gravel with an inch of compacted soil on top (like the drive way on the right side of the picture but with grass grown over it)

It takes a time, but you can literally plant a garden on top of a concrete slab - if you have composted enough there.  Over the gravel and compacted soil, pile as much organic matter as you can get your hands on.  Fall leaves, wood chips, old hay, straw, mix in some cardboard, weeds, lawn clippings, spent brewers grains from the local micro-brewery, banana peels, coffee grounds from the coffee shop, anything you can get your hands on.  I have a mentor that gardens over the top of a concrete patio in his back yard.  He piled mostly leaves as thick as he could, and now he has over 12" of the richest soil to grow in - in the small space he has to work with.  For trees you can't go over concrete, but you will be amazed at the transformation of hard compacted soil by doing nothing but covering it with organic matter.  No need to dig or till (or turn the compost pile), just DNR (dump N run) over and over!  It will take time, but it is the lowest amount of work for the amazing transformation that occurs.  

I had a spot where I could not get a shovel in 1/4", even with standing on the shovel.  It looked and felt like concrete.  I did nothing but mow the weeds around it with the mower discharge directed onto this area, covering it even minimally.  After 6 weeks I could dig with just my finger to a depth of 1 1/2 inches.  I planted some 65 day corn in mid July and got a crop the same year.  I am on clay.  Cover the ground to feed the soil life and you will be rewarded.