Now that the most urgent post-construction projects are done, it’s time to focus on what could be considered my front yard – the septic drainfield. This area can’t be seen from the road but is passed by when entering or leaving the main door to the greenhouse. I want the landscaping to be low maintenance so the original thought was to just throw some wildflower seed mix on that area but otherwise leave it natural for the spring and summer months where the deer graze and the new fawns bed down.
But I recently watched a video by The Wildlife Homestead about his multi-year project to transform a portion of his property from a monocrop pine tree plantation into a wildlife paradise that got me thinking about what else I could do to attract and support other wildlife besides deer.
I’ve never designed a wildlife meadow environment nor planted on top of a drainfield, however, so I’m asking your help to reach my objectives for this area, to:
- Attract wildlife – some wildlife that lives on the island but I haven’t seen on my property but would like to attract are great horned owls, barred owls, turkeys, woodpeckers, flickers, hummingbirds, and a variety of song birds, bees, and butterflies.
- Be low maintenance
- Does not need watering after the 2nd year
Some constraints are this part of my property is ringed with tall evergreens that I won’t cut, trim, or thin. And being the septic drainfield I can’t plant anything with invasive roots. Currently the soil is not very deep with lots of rock but I can bring in at least a few inches of better soil to improve growing conditions.
I don’t mind watering a bit over the summer for a couple years while things get established but otherwise it needs to be self-supporting.
And plants need to be deer resistant or prolific enough to outpace the dine and dashers.
Words of advice about planting on a septic drainfield?
Plants that are deer resistant, attract wildlife, and can handle the light, water, and temperature conditions?
Design considerations for it to look ‘natural’?
Ideas how to achieve this efficiently and at a reasonable cost?
Let me know in the comments below or on the YouTube video!
Hi Shawn,
Two years ago, I decided to convert a half acre section of my property from a grassy weedy patch that I regularly mowed to a pollinator-friendly wildflower meadow. My goal is to provide more sources of nectar for my honey bees throughout the season, as well as for the other beneficial insects and pollinators.
After doing some research online and watching numerous episodes of the BBC show Gardener’s World (streaming on BritBox), I cam across Northwest Meadowscapes based out of Port Townsend, WA. I used their How To Plant a Meadow web page as a guide (https://northwestmeadowscapes.com/pages/planting-advice).
Some notes from their How To page may be applicable to your situation:
• We do not recommend using clear plastic for site preparation. “Solarization” with clear plastic has not proven to be consistently successful in northern climates.
• We do not recommend the use of any plastic smothering near the root systems of trees, which need to breath (just like your lungs, and which also need access to water).
• Plastic smothering should not be used over existing septic drainfields which function via soil evaporation.
I started by mowing down all of the grass and weeds with my electric mower set to the lowest setting in late August two years ago. I raked up all of the grass and hauled it away from the area. Then I used my electric string trimmer to scalp the mowed area down to mostly bare soil, and I raked up and hauled away as much of what was left.
I then covered a quarter acre section of the scalped area with multiple black plastic sheets that I purchased in 10 ft. wide by 200 ft. long rolls. I weighed down the plastic with bricks, stones, anything heavy enough to keep the sheets in place and prevent air and light from intruding under the plastic.
I kept that plastic in place until October of last year, until the rains had come to northwest Oregon. When I removed the plastic, the covered area was free of weeds and grasses. Since my soil is mostly a heavy clay, I rented a heavy duty rotavator to break up the soil, and to till in a light application of homemade compost and leaf mold. Then I raked the area prior to seeding.
I waited until the weather forecast called for several days of rain, so as to avoid having to hand irrigate the new meadow area. I then planted hundreds of woodland and meadow bulb varieties including Grape Hyacinth, and multiple varieties of Crocus, Allium, Fritillary, and Snow Drops
I then used a broadcast seeder to scatter seed directly onto the soil surface. Here is a list of the seed varieties that I purchased for Northwest Meadowscapes and planted in my meadow:
• Deer Defense Seed Mix (https://northwestmeadowscapes.com/products/deer-defense-seed-mix)
• Native Pollinator Meadow Seed Mix 1 (for West of the Cascades) (https://northwestmeadowscapes.com/products/native-pollinator-seed-mix-1)
• Northwest Prairie Mix (https://northwestmeadowscapes.com/products/northwest-prairie-mix)
Now, I’m waiting for Spring to see the results of my work in that quarter acre section. The other quarter acre section of the half acre area that I am converting to meadow is now under black plastic. If the seeded area is successful, then I’ll be repeating the process on the remaining area.
Creating a the quarter acre meadow was not cheap and required a fair amount of labor. The total cost of the black plastic rolls, the heavy duty rotavator rental, the bulbs, and the seed mixes to cover a quarter acre was almost $500.
I am encouraged by the new growth that has carpeted the quarter acre – hopefully, it’s my new wildflower meadow.
Good luck with creating your pollinator friendly meadow.
Best regards,
Tony Mrozinski
This is great, thank you so much! I’ll definitely check out the links you provided.
I agree with you about plastic in the yard, especially on top of the drain field. If I want to smother grass and/or weeds to prep a new garden I’ve used cardboard covered with chips that has worked well. When I was trying to kill a turf lawn I cut out the turf, turned it over, and covered with chips. That was about 90% effective for a lot of physical labor but almost zero cost.
Last night I went through my seeds and have quite a few left from 2024 packaging that I expect are still mostly viable for a start this year.
I need to bring in at least a yard of garden soil to top off the beds in the greenhouse and the new beds in the yard so I think this year I may make small mounds (1′-2′ diameter) on the drainfield in the bare patches between whatever’s growing there now. That can let me trial circles of new flowers and grasses without the cost and effort of the entire space in one year.
Thanks for the info, Tony. I’ll do a follow up video probably April or May.
That website was very helpful! I’ve ordered the Northwest prairie mix and pollinator’s mix. When I compared the varieties in those mixes with the seeds I already had, there was some overlap but a lot of seeds I didn’t already have.