Question
Mr. Ray,
I read one of the articles that you answered and I thought maybe you could help me. My family and I live in Texas around the coast, near the Bayou, and everytime it rains our yard has a lot of really wet areas for many months. We have a lot of vegetation in our yard, but I was wondering is there any sort of tree that I could possibly plant in or around our low lieing areas? If so is there anything I could put in our back yard around our septic too?

Concerned and Frustrated,

Kristi

Answer
Hey, Kristi.

I had to laugh some at your question because I was born in Kingsville, Texas (down near Corpus Christi), graduated from Texas A&M University, and lived in Houston from 1977-1982. So I understand the comment, "everytime it rains our yard has a lot of really wet areas for many months." The Gulf Coast of Texas has a lot of interesting soil conditions, from the Houston black clays to the Houston red clays to sandy loams. There are high water tables and low water tables, beach sands, coastal prairies, forests, etc. Without knowing where you live and the soil conditions there, it's difficult to provide you with any good advice, but I'll try to give you some general help. Please feel free to follow up.

Are you trying to find some trees or plants that will help soak up the water? If so, the sycamore and the willows like lots of water, and they can grow in just about any type of soil as long as they have that water supply.

If you're interesting in some low-lying vegetation/bushes, look for plants that have large, dark green leaves, such as the elephant's ear and the philodendrons, which are two of my favorites for wet locations. Some of the ivies, such as English ivy, can also make a beautiful ground cover and drink up that water. The pittosporum and ligustrum are good small tree/shrub standbys for wet locations.

As far as your septic system, keep the trees far, far away from that leach field. If you don't like the bare area above the leach field, plant some seasonal flowers, or make a vegetable garden. With the natural fertilization from the septic tank, you should get some beautiful flowers and some huge vegetables. Use anything with shallow roots, just no trees of any type, not even bush trees such as pittosporum or ligustrum.

Two other things to do are:

1 - Drive your neighborhood and look for homes and properties similar to yours and see what they've done to address their wet locations.

2 - Visit your smaller local nurseries (not the large box home improvement stores) and discuss the issue with them. I've found that your small mom & pop nurseries that have been owned by the same people for 30 years are quite knowledgeable about conditions in your area. They usually are quite helpful.

Hope that helps.

Feel free to follow up with me.

Hope that helps.