Tips for Hiding Septic Pipes

Hiding to Improve Access

• Before starting any landscaping project, it’s important to know where all of the septic equipment is located. Septic tanks require regular maintenance, and certain parts of the system need special treatment, such as limiting the weight of structures or types of plantings placed on top of them. Carefully implemented structures can serve the dual purposes of hiding pipes and marking the equipment location. A tiered planting box can mark the location of access ports and pipes, creating an attractive visual distraction while lifting plant roots above the soil to prevent potential root damage in pipes. Alternatively, you could place a garden bench above pipes near access areas. Benches can easily be lifted out of the way when maintenance becomes necessary.

Shrub Walls

• A row of shrubs forms a living screen to hide pipes. Avoid planting species with water-seeking root systems near pipes as their roots can cause damage. Instead, choose shrubs that thrive in dry soil and don’t plant them too close to the tank. Evergreens provide year-round screening while deciduous shrubs lose foliage in winter but offer attractive fall color. Appropriate species for pipe screening include the mapleleaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium), a 6-foot-tall deciduous shrub with 14-inch-deep roots that thrives in well-drained soil. It blooms with white blossoms in spring and has dark-green leaves that turn red and purple in autumn. Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) roots grow to 10 inches deep, but this dense evergreen only reaches 6 to 12 inches in height. This native shrub blooms with pink spring flowers followed by red berries.

Vine Trellis

• Vine-covered trellises hide pipes and provide color, texture and vertical interest around a septic system. Non-water-seeking species include star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), a fast-growing evergreen that grows to 15 feet long. It blooms with fragrant white blossoms in spring and grows well in a variety of site conditions. The five-leaf akebia (Akebia quinata) has deciduous to semi-evergreen foliage and grows up to 40 feet long. This twining vine blooms with aromatic red-purple flowers in spring. Other vines that thrive in dry sites include fatshedra (Fatshedera lizei), trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) and Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).

Living Screens

• Create a living screen to hide pipes with ornamental grasses. These versatile, low-maintenance plants have shallow, fibrous root systems that remove excess nutrients and moisture from the soil and help prevent erosion and weed growth around pipes. Good choices for septic system landscapes include prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), a 2-foot-tall grass that forms fountain-like mounds of lustrous, green foliage. Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) grows from 2 to 4 feet in height and has fine, blue-green foliage that turns bronze, orange and red in fall. Other species to consider include Indian wood oats (Chasmanthium latifolium), June grass (Koeleria macrantha), and sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula).