Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

Hi Jim and Group.

This is a first post and I am hoping to execute the Mittleider Method this coming Spring. Could you give some insight into safe distances and other relations to things like septic tanks and septic drainage fields, please?

Also we have a garden area that is separated by a gravel driveway and maybe 10 feet of lawn from a neighbor's lot where he keeps from 2-4 horses at any time. Our soil is clay and stays wet into late Spring, but is fertile and the previous owner of the site has had lush gardens after adding old barn amendments. I will be adding some cleansed rice hulls to it to shortly and am making some drainage to the garden area lot to avoid sitting water. Might you have some general advice to give, please?

Thanks for making the material available and all your effort.

God bless.

Joe
North East Arkansas

Joe & Group:

You're not too far from us! We are about 55 miles East/Southeast from St. Joseph, MO.

I figure it's a bit like sin - I want to stay as far away as possible! There are obviously practical considerations, however, and you should do what you can. If possible, make sure you are uphill from the septic drain field.

In some countries, including Japan and China (and MANY more) human excrement is used in family gardens, and even in America some municipalities sell "sanitized" and dried sewer sludge to homeowners.

Also, remember that the large majority of the plants' root activity is in the top 8" of the soil - at least it is if you water regularly. Therefore, if the possible exposure to sewage is deep in the ground there is probably negligible danger.

Jim Kennard

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