Wait a moment. The OP did not say raw sewage was coming into his garden.
No one but a complete fool would put bleach, unsuitable lavatory cleaners and paint solvent into a septic tank. This has just been made up to embellish the story.
It's not so very many years since 'night soil' was spread on the fields and certainly was used in the vegetable garden. Since when did everybody get so precious about a bit of s**t.
Yes, it will have to be sorted, but during my long life I have only been on main drainage for one very short period, and I am still here to tell the tale.
And one good thing is we pay so, so much less to the Water Board than those of you with public sewers!
sounds like a problem with the soak away there should be an area which will have been prepared with gravel and sand when the septic tank system was installed. sometimes these get silted up over time and the water doesn't soak away so much as run along near the surface.
use your nose if its a bit wiffy round the area you are talking about then its a problem.
I'm in Ireland and the farmers round me engage in some serious muck spreading you could cut the air with a knife luckily the smell dissipates after a day.
It's a funny thing really most people don't relate meat to animals they couldn't stand to see a chicken killed for instance and prepared to the carcase that you see on the supermarket shelves. I think its the extremities which upset people the most.
Well as an uncomfortable truth our waste goes to fertilize the fields that grow our food. What did you think was happening to it? Imagine the size of the pile you would have if it wasn't being used. Bacteria do a fantastic job of breaking it all down, along with all the other insects and worms ect. Compost is pretty much the same thing just hasn't been through the digestive system of an animal first.
Need I mention the most expensive coffee beans in the world have passed through the digestive system of an animal. (please don't choke on your coffee you probably don't drink the really expensive stuff).
I wouldnt put a veg plot in the area your talking about but most other plants will thrive and you can enjoy them, without thinking about what made them grow so well whilst sitting on your plate.
The main problem you could have is water logged clay soil, there needs to be air in there and the best way to get that is get planting.
thanks Edd - when I've more time, I'll read through that thread. Although I do know that there are things one shouldn't pour down the drains, I also know that there are lots of people who are unaware of that! My work for an estate agent - I show people round houses in a rural area - means that I meet all sorts of people who have never come across private drainage systems.
I often meet people who, having read in the sales brochure that there's oil central heating and private drainage at a property, are confused as to what's what. For instance, they'll sometimes mistake one of those green plastic oil storage tanks for a septic tank! Yes - Really!. ........... when I point out that in fact the drainage system is totally underground and that what they're looking at is in fact an oil storage tank, their next question is usually "oh! - so, how often will I have to fill it?"........................................
So, having been brought up in the country, and living in the country, I'm quite aware of lots of stuff which people who've only ever lived in towns don't even think about, hence my thought that sometimes stuff which shouldn't get there often ends up in a septic tank. In answer to another poster, yes - I do know about plucking and dressing poultry, and about management of muck heaps and the ways of using farmyard manure. My father was a farmer and I grew up on a farm. I'm also much much older than many of the people who post on this forum (David K knows what I'm going on about!) so have seen lots of changes during my lifetime, whether it's getting a proper septic tank system instead of having a cesspit, and having central heating instead of just open fires................!
I just got worried about the poster who seemed to be worried about parasites and bacteria and whether the neighbours were healthy!
Just shows how removed from Real Life some people are. Though to be fair there was an upswelling of feeling when a local creamery started spreading the waste from the cheese-making on the fields, because it smelled so awful!! I think it has to be done far from human habitation.
Posts
Wait a moment. The OP did not say raw sewage was coming into his garden.
No one but a complete fool would put bleach, unsuitable lavatory cleaners and paint solvent into a septic tank. This has just been made up to embellish the story.
It's not so very many years since 'night soil' was spread on the fields and certainly was used in the vegetable garden. Since when did everybody get so precious about a bit of s**t.
Yes, it will have to be sorted, but during my long life I have only been on main drainage for one very short period, and I am still here to tell the tale.
And one good thing is we pay so, so much less to the Water Board than those of you with public sewers!
sounds like a problem with the soak away there should be an area which will have been prepared with gravel and sand when the septic tank system was installed. sometimes these get silted up over time and the water doesn't soak away so much as run along near the surface.
use your nose if its a bit wiffy round the area you are talking about then its a problem.
I'm in Ireland and the farmers round me engage in some serious muck spreading you could cut the air with a knife luckily the smell dissipates after a day.
It's a funny thing really most people don't relate meat to animals they couldn't stand to see a chicken killed for instance and prepared to the carcase that you see on the supermarket shelves. I think its the extremities which upset people the most.
Well as an uncomfortable truth our waste goes to fertilize the fields that grow our food. What did you think was happening to it? Imagine the size of the pile you would have if it wasn't being used. Bacteria do a fantastic job of breaking it all down, along with all the other insects and worms ect. Compost is pretty much the same thing just hasn't been through the digestive system of an animal first.
Need I mention the most expensive coffee beans in the world have passed through the digestive system of an animal. (please don't choke on your coffee you probably don't drink the really expensive stuff).
I wouldnt put a veg plot in the area your talking about but most other plants will thrive and you can enjoy them, without thinking about what made them grow so well whilst sitting on your plate.
The main problem you could have is water logged clay soil, there needs to be air in there and the best way to get that is get planting.
thanks Edd - when I've more time, I'll read through that thread. Although I do know that there are things one shouldn't pour down the drains, I also know that there are lots of people who are unaware of that! My work for an estate agent - I show people round houses in a rural area - means that I meet all sorts of people who have never come across private drainage systems.
I often meet people who, having read in the sales brochure that there's oil central heating and private drainage at a property, are confused as to what's what. For instance, they'll sometimes mistake one of those green plastic oil storage tanks for a septic tank! Yes - Really!. ........... when I point out that in fact the drainage system is totally underground and that what they're looking at is in fact an oil storage tank, their next question is usually "oh! - so, how often will I have to fill it?"........................................
So, having been brought up in the country, and living in the country, I'm quite aware of lots of stuff which people who've only ever lived in towns don't even think about, hence my thought that sometimes stuff which shouldn't get there often ends up in a septic tank. In answer to another poster, yes - I do know about plucking and dressing poultry, and about management of muck heaps and the ways of using farmyard manure. My father was a farmer and I grew up on a farm. I'm also much much older than many of the people who post on this forum (David K knows what I'm going on about!) so have seen lots of changes during my lifetime, whether it's getting a proper septic tank system instead of having a cesspit, and having central heating instead of just open fires................!
I just got worried about the poster who seemed to be worried about parasites and bacteria and whether the neighbours were healthy!
Just shows how removed from Real Life some people are. Though to be fair there was an upswelling of feeling when a local creamery started spreading the waste from the cheese-making on the fields, because it smelled so awful!! I think it has to be done far from human habitation.