the drainfield mound garden (for those of you that have asked about it)

We have a raised drainfield that is 4' above grade that we have turned into a lovely landscaped garden in our backyard. Many have asked about the garden and how it is constructed so here are some diagrams and photos as well as an explaination as to how it has been constructed and planted.

As you can see above, (although the diagram is cut off at the bottom) there is a central circular area of lawn, with a garden around the lawn . the garden is in the shape of a toilet seat..(fitting for a drainfield garden)..it wraps around the circle on the west, north and east sides..and though you can't see it here there are lawn paths that go down on both sides just south of this picture to the east and to the west.

you enter the lawn from the house by a lawn path, and the two little circle there are dwarf pole apple trees on either side of the lawn entry..the beds are equal size (imagine the letter C laying on it's side) on both sides of this lawn..with the arbor on the north end of the lawn with grapes, clematis and roses up the arbor ..photos to follow..then there is another section of lawn with a lawn path that goes to the east down to grade..and a deck with steps going down to grade on the north.

to the west of the arbor is another dwarf apple tree (gala) and to the north is a seeded apple tree down on the below grade and to the east of it is another dwarf 5 on one apple tree down on grade..

on the sloping sides of the toilet seat shaped and other surrounding beds are perennial plants, ground covers and shrubs as well as those dwarf apple trees..

directly behind the house are also 2 dwarf cherry trees on the slope leading down to the grade west of the drainfield.

This shows the circular lawn from the back porch of the house..this was taken during a drought in June last year. Where I'm standing here there is a lawn path that goes down to the ground level to my right and one to the left out of the picture.

This shows a little more of the path top where it goes down to the right and a little more of the slope off to the east of the drainfield top lawn. this bed goes down at about a 45 degree angle to the ground level grade..(to the east of this is a large pond).

this is a photo of the WEST side of the drainfield garden taken from the ground level looking up the 45 degree slope and toward the North from just south of the cherry trees. That shed you see North of the drainfield mound garden is a shed I made from salvaged 7' long pallets, worked out well.

this shows a few of the shrubs and perennials growing on the west bank of the drainfield garden

This is the NW corner of the drainfield mound garden, the poppies are planted on the north just west of the apple tree.

this photo is where the steps come down off the north end of the drainfield deck..the apple tree that was grown from seed is seen to the right of the steps in the photo.

this path goes down to the west at the south end of the drainfield lawn behind the house..you can see a fairy ring that sprouted up in the lawn last year. If you know where to look you can see two very small baby dwarf cherry trees behind the house. They were just planted and were only a couple feet tall.

Looking through the arbor at the north end of the drainfield lawn ..path goes down to the pond on the east just past the arbor, there are now some baby graepvines planted on the arbor and later in the summer there are some clematis that bloom on it as well. You really can't see the deck but it is behind the roses..

I hope this gives you some what of an idea what you can do with a raised drainfield mound.