septic system => Fast Growing Grass + sheep?

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by smagrath, Jul 12, 2006.

  1. smagrath

    smagrath Junior Member

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    Ok, the rural property we're renting has a septic system which seems to eventually pass the final product out under the lawn. The grass seems to REALLy love this - the drainage area is lush, deep and fast growing.

    Now, I thought of getting a sheep as a tractor to keep it under control BUT I've heard that they won't eat the grass because they can smell/taste the septic origins.

    What do you think?
    What's your experience?
    How about a goat, or perhaps an Alpacaca?
    :wink:
     
  2. Tezza

    Tezza Junior Member

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    Yeah Ok

    Several options here.....Dig up grass grow something in its place,preferably not a leafy or root crop...Fruit trees great,

    not sure if sheep /goats will wanna eat it either ,would you :lol: :lol: :lol:

    if digging grass is hard work,try covering thickly with straw and cardboard and plant some thing to use the extra water/nutrients....

    barring that try sheep/goats.

    Tezza
     
  3. Loris

    Loris Junior Member

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    The old fashioned way of dealing with this was to plant water using plants over the septic trenches. Got to be careful with this as sometimes root systems grow back up the pipes and clog the septic tank.
    Traditionally, cannas have a high water usage as do bananas. You can eat bananas. My mangos love it and do well but one day my septic will clog from the mangos. Sunflowers love the wet and you can feed the chooks on them.
    If the sheep won't eat the grass, I'll guarantee the chooks will - chook tractor the area - even larger poultry like turkeys may give you the return you are wanting.
    Let the grass grow long then cut and dry for mulch. etc etc. Its a resource.
     
  4. Loris

    Loris Junior Member

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    Am having a bad day - forgetting what I want to say. Anyway, don't get hung up about outflow from septic. Its great and the plants love it. I probably wouldn't eat root vegetables grown in the trench but would be surprised if animals were fussy.
    When we lived in the bush, the overflow from the septic tank went straight out into open shallow ditch across the paddock. Up near the tank it was a bit slimy but about 3 to 4 metres down the ditch it was perfectly clear and had no smell. All the farm animals drank out of the ditch and had perfect health. All our poultry drank out of it and we ate their flesh and eggs for years with no problems. Native animals also came and drank this water, especially during the drought. The end of the ditch overflowed into a little puddle/ lagoon and the ducks and waterbirds swam in there. In the drought, the sides of the ditch grew luscious grass which was the only patch of green on the place and all the animals ate it. Once or twice, we even had immense flocks of migrating waterbirds overnight at our little puddle - must have looked good from the air. Great to see this moisture put to use.
    We were a bit careful what we put into the septic in terms of soaps and cleaners. And thats all we did aside from making sure the ditch didn't silt up. Bred lots of mossies but the ducks saw to them. Enjoy your septic.
     
  5. Franceyne

    Franceyne Junior Member

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    Hey there Smagrath,

    Love your avatar :)

    We rented an old farm house that had a septic that emptied underground and resulted in a very lush grassed area - it was our pet lambs favourite place to eat - we had to move the fence to include more of this area because they kept on stretching the fence trying to reach through to the grass on the other side. :lol:

    We are vegeterian (may make a difference to lamb noses) and the toilets were flushed with a mixture of dam and bore water.

    Cheers,
    Fran.
     

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