So it turns out the grass is not always greener
April 30, 2018 10:59 AM Subscribe
Looking for the impossible? Shade tolerant grass or other ground cover over a septic tank. Area is fairly shady. Difficulty: I'm not around to water it.
Weekend home in North East Pennsylvania- hardiness zone 5a. We had a new septic tank installed 2 years ago and the grass has not grown back where they dug the yard up. The soil just in that spot looks clay-ish. I threw some seed on it the first year, but nothing grew there.
The septic tank is on a hill. The leach field is mostly covered by moss and some grass. The whole area is fairly shady and tends to be a damp.
I'm only there on weekends, or every other weekend. I know new grass and plants need a lot of water at the beginning.
I have access to a friend's pachysandra for cuttings but I don't know if that is a good choice- possibly invasive, possibly the roots aren't good for a septic field? Don't know.
Can I transplant some of the moss?
Oh yeah, there are a million birds and chipmunks- would they eat the grass seeds?
What grass or ground cover could I plant there? Looking for recommendations, please.
TYIA!
Weekend home in North East Pennsylvania- hardiness zone 5a. We had a new septic tank installed 2 years ago and the grass has not grown back where they dug the yard up. The soil just in that spot looks clay-ish. I threw some seed on it the first year, but nothing grew there.
The septic tank is on a hill. The leach field is mostly covered by moss and some grass. The whole area is fairly shady and tends to be a damp.
I'm only there on weekends, or every other weekend. I know new grass and plants need a lot of water at the beginning.
I have access to a friend's pachysandra for cuttings but I don't know if that is a good choice- possibly invasive, possibly the roots aren't good for a septic field? Don't know.
Can I transplant some of the moss?
Oh yeah, there are a million birds and chipmunks- would they eat the grass seeds?
What grass or ground cover could I plant there? Looking for recommendations, please.
TYIA!
Best answer: I would go to the nearest nursery and ask for recommendations. Clover and/ or thyme sound reasonable. You may want to pick up a couple of bags of topsoil, when the area was dug up, whatever was there got mixed in to poor soul, and whatever you plant may need a bit of help. In spring in PA., It will probably not need much, if any, watering.
posted by theora55 at 11:44 AM on April 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 11:44 AM on April 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: For some historic reason, I have four septic tanks, it's weird. But I do not have that problem over any of them, so I guess the problem is that the digging out and covering process has compacted the topsoil. I think maybe you need to mix some sand and/or sphagnum into the topsoil if there is a lot of clay to make it more airy and better at retaining water temporally. Ask at the nursery.
Also, grass doesn't like shade at all, specially not when it is young. You can have grass in a shady spot if it was well established before the shade arrived, but it is really difficult to get to grow in shade.
I do have other problem spots and here are some results:
I moved some moss into a shady spot with some large rocks to make a moss garden, and it was eventually successful, but it took several years (and now I've changed my mind about the location and removed the shady trees so it's being covered with other stuff). I will make a new moss garden in a different place eventually, but now I know how long it takes.
The birds and other seed eaters are a problem. I'm always trying to grow a flower meadow where I don't want to mow the grass too often, but it never works, and I suspect the birds. There are tons of them in spring, when I try to sow. The same would happen with clover, I don't know with thyme, I haven't been successful with that either. With the thyme, the problem might also be the deer: I've noticed that thyme doesn't like to be grazed all the way down, which deer will do if they like something a lot. So one thing I'm thinking about now is ferns. I love ferns, and they seem to grow very well in the forest next to my garden. Another thing I like, but that MetaFIlter always gets up in arms about is ivy. I really like ivy, and specially how it will both cover the ground and grow up trees and stuff very decoratively. In the north-facing part of my yard where I have a long stretch of ivy, I have raised foals, puppies, kitties, different fowl and children, and no-one has ever been poisoned. (It's a walled section where little animals can wander safely in the first part of their lives. They have eaten my all herbs and the roses, but never the ivy). I wear gloves when I cut it down once a year.
Right now, as I am still thinking about what to do with the not-meadow area, tons of raspberries and blackberries are coming out all by themselves, and they spread like a thorny pest, but obviously the kids love it. I think they come from plants planted more than fifty years ago, by the previous owner of the place. Anyway, they seem very sturdy, and I've seen them in many different types of soil. They need a bit of sun, but not full. The current gardening fashion seems to be to see what comes up and then remove whatever you don't like and all invasive species. But if nothing is happening, again: you need to look at the soil.
On the other hand, part of my lawn was ruined once when I was doing a big renovation and the contractor put all the stuff they tore out from the house in a big pile for several months before removing it. There I raked the ground well with some horse manure I got from my neighbor and then sowed grass in the middle of summer when there was plenty to eat for birds and mice outside the garden and it worked fine except it's another grass mix than the rest of the lawn, so more blueish. I have sandy soil, so I could easily loosen it up with a normal garden rake. That will not work with clay. I didn't water, but our summers are not very dry currently. Maybe do this when the forecast promises a few days of rain?
posted by mumimor at 12:47 PM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also, grass doesn't like shade at all, specially not when it is young. You can have grass in a shady spot if it was well established before the shade arrived, but it is really difficult to get to grow in shade.
I do have other problem spots and here are some results:
I moved some moss into a shady spot with some large rocks to make a moss garden, and it was eventually successful, but it took several years (and now I've changed my mind about the location and removed the shady trees so it's being covered with other stuff). I will make a new moss garden in a different place eventually, but now I know how long it takes.
The birds and other seed eaters are a problem. I'm always trying to grow a flower meadow where I don't want to mow the grass too often, but it never works, and I suspect the birds. There are tons of them in spring, when I try to sow. The same would happen with clover, I don't know with thyme, I haven't been successful with that either. With the thyme, the problem might also be the deer: I've noticed that thyme doesn't like to be grazed all the way down, which deer will do if they like something a lot. So one thing I'm thinking about now is ferns. I love ferns, and they seem to grow very well in the forest next to my garden. Another thing I like, but that MetaFIlter always gets up in arms about is ivy. I really like ivy, and specially how it will both cover the ground and grow up trees and stuff very decoratively. In the north-facing part of my yard where I have a long stretch of ivy, I have raised foals, puppies, kitties, different fowl and children, and no-one has ever been poisoned. (It's a walled section where little animals can wander safely in the first part of their lives. They have eaten my all herbs and the roses, but never the ivy). I wear gloves when I cut it down once a year.
Right now, as I am still thinking about what to do with the not-meadow area, tons of raspberries and blackberries are coming out all by themselves, and they spread like a thorny pest, but obviously the kids love it. I think they come from plants planted more than fifty years ago, by the previous owner of the place. Anyway, they seem very sturdy, and I've seen them in many different types of soil. They need a bit of sun, but not full. The current gardening fashion seems to be to see what comes up and then remove whatever you don't like and all invasive species. But if nothing is happening, again: you need to look at the soil.
On the other hand, part of my lawn was ruined once when I was doing a big renovation and the contractor put all the stuff they tore out from the house in a big pile for several months before removing it. There I raked the ground well with some horse manure I got from my neighbor and then sowed grass in the middle of summer when there was plenty to eat for birds and mice outside the garden and it worked fine except it's another grass mix than the rest of the lawn, so more blueish. I have sandy soil, so I could easily loosen it up with a normal garden rake. That will not work with clay. I didn't water, but our summers are not very dry currently. Maybe do this when the forecast promises a few days of rain?
posted by mumimor at 12:47 PM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: If you want to get decorative in spots, I read that daffodils do well in clay soil.
Also, this book - Right Plant Right Place - is where I read it, and it's got other suggestions for clay and shade.
posted by amtho at 12:57 PM on April 30, 2018
Also, this book - Right Plant Right Place - is where I read it, and it's got other suggestions for clay and shade.
posted by amtho at 12:57 PM on April 30, 2018
Response by poster: Thank you all! I think I will try some creeping thyme, but will definitely ask at the garden center first.
posted by Neeuq Nus at 1:18 PM on April 30, 2018
posted by Neeuq Nus at 1:18 PM on April 30, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
If you're really into your grass though, they both creep and will "ruin" your lawn, if you like the look of a kentucky bluegrass lawn.
red creeping thyme, mother-of-thyme, and woolley thyme are all nice looking, lightly walkable, and deer/rabbit (and probably chipmunk) resistant.
posted by euphoria066 at 11:34 AM on April 30, 2018