A marital dispute that only a good landscape idea can resolve...

[Julie in CA]

My dh and I are having a dispute, and I need a creative landscaping solution.

 

We've lived in rural areas all our lives, and we're used to having septic tanks. Occasionally they need to be pumped out, in our experience, roughly every 8 years or so. Most people have to dig up their lawn to uncover the tank lid. Yeah, it can mess up your landscape a little, but it doesn't happen that often. When we built our house 9 years ago, my dh's bright idea was to leave openings for easy access to the tanks. :confused: Yeah, I tried to talk him out of it, and in most respects, he's a really reasonable man, but not about this. :glare:

 

Once one of our nieces was running in the dark and tripped on the edge surrounding the opening, cutting her leg open, and requiring stitches. Dh's solution was to put on big metal covers, similar (in my mind) to manhole covers. :001_huh:

 

He's resistant to the fact that NO ONE ELSE EVER does this with their septic tanks. He also really cares about how our yard is landscaped. So amazing that he cannot see how ugly & stupid these things are, while at the same time, putting such care & effort into carrying out the plans I have for making everything else attractive & beautiful. {sigh}

 

I need ideas for hiding/disguising the covers. It has to be something that will be able to be moved within 10 minutes, should the need arise.

 

At this point, I'm thinking of building something like a small, lightweight deck-type thing that could just be laid over the whole thing, and then I can put something there like a pretty park bench or something. Still, it would be difficult to build something non-permanent and light enough to easily move it out of the way. The area it would have to cover in order to go over both ugly covers would be roughly 8 feet. They are each roughly 3' across, and they are roughly 2' apart from each other.

 

Plan B, in my mind, is to plunk a few pink flamingos on each cover, and simply try to view it as whimsical. :D

 

There *has* to be a better idea....right? :bigear:

 

ETA: The first picture is the main view of our front landscaping.

The second picture is the wide area to the left of our house.

The third picture is that same wide area from another viewpoint, with the ugly covers.

 

Edited AGAIN!: I don't think that I can just put potted plants there, because #1. They'd be out of place #2. In order to look right at all, they'd have to be really pretty big, and thus, too heavy. #3. It would be difficult to get water to them.

Edited October 27, 2011 by Julie in CA

[livingnlearning]

We had the same thing here-DH was overly practical and I dont' like the look!

 

We had a little wishing well type lawn ornament that an elderly family friend made us out of 2by4's that was cute and had sentimental value-I put it on one of the covers and an assortment of flower pots and an old wheelbarrow with flowers planted in it around the rest of it. Easy enough to move when needed and it's not quite so obvious... lol

[Julie in CA]

We had the same thing here-

You're KIDDING me!! :D

I've never known anyone else who's done this. At least now I don't feel so alone. ;)

[Bluegoat]

What about building something like a kind of arbour around it, and grow annual vines over it?

[GailV]

Ivy that will trail over them? I'm thinking of Hedera helix or something like that. You could have an area of ivy, it will sort of go over the manhole covers on its own (lord knows it will take over a house or tree, it should have no trouble with a manhole cover), no one will wander through it in the dark since the texture is so different.

[Perry]

Fake rocks.

 

Edited October 27, 2011 by Perry

[Kipling]

Our septic tank access is right in front of our front porch (lovely thought), and has a concrete cover to it that sat in the middle of the grass. We extended the flower beds so that we now have bushes and flowers in front of the porch with mulch spread around. We cover the septic tank access with mulch, but it's easy to get to since you just have to scrape mulch away. Not sure how this would work in your situation, except I have seen yards where people have a circle or kidney-bean shaped flower bed in the middle of the yard. If you did something like this around the covers, you could hide them with mulch.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

First of all, your landscaping is gorgeous. Secondly, I don't think they look as bad as you think they do. The niceness of everything else sort of downplays the big covers. I don't really have any great ideas, but just wanted to say that I wouldn't think they were that horrible if I saw them. I know it's different when you have to look out there every day, though.

[Laura Corin]

I don't know - around here everyone leaves the manhole covers of their septic tanks exposed. They just put something in front of it if they don't like the look. I have a manhole cover for my buried gas tank in my lawn too....

 

ETA: I'm considering pygmy bamboo to cover up another eyesore. I don't know if that would fit....

 

Laura

Edited October 27, 2011 by Laura Corin

[JennifersLost]

How about this - fence in the covers and a bit of land around them. Make it big enough that you can plant shrubs inside the fence, and more decorative plantings outside the fence. Hide a gate into it big enough to allow for pumping.

 

I think you could create a pretty neat visual element if you let your imagination go a bit.

 

 

And btw - my husband would totally do that. I think any guy who has had to dig out a few too many septic tanks would.

[Happy]

We put a flowerbed around our 'manhole' covers over our septic system. I planted antique roses in a bed around them. To keep the covers from disappearing under the mulch, I plopped a big shallow pot on each of them. Some years I plant flowers in there, some years the pot is full of mulch. No one but me ever notices them because they are oooing and ahhhing over the roses. We laid soaker hoses in and around the roses, so it's easy to water them.

 

In my front yard, our well is covered with a fake rock and a flowerbed planted around it. Edited to add...I placed a large piece of flagstone right where the well dude stood to pull and replace our well pump. That way I don't plant too much too close to that place.

 

DH says if he stands too long in the yard, I might plant a flowerbed around him. Smart guy. :D

 

By the way, I LOVE the look of your home. Very pretty and very lovely home and yard.

[Spy Car]

We put a flowerbed around our 'manhole' covers over our septic system. I planted antique roses in a bed around them. To keep the covers from disappearing under the mulch, I plopped a big shallow pot on each of them. Some years I plant flowers in there, some years the pot is full of mulch. No one but me ever notices them because they are oooing and ahhhing over the roses. We laid soaker hoses in and around the roses, so it's easy to water them.

 

In my front yard, our well is covered with a fake rock and a flowerbed planted around it. Edited to add...I placed a large piece of flagstone right where the well dude stood to pull and replace our well pump. That way I don't plant too much too close to that place.

 

DH says if he stands too long in the yard, I might plant a flowerbed around him. Smart guy. :D

 

By the way, I LOVE the look of your home. Very pretty and very lovely home and yard.

 

Which ones?

 

Bill (a fan of antique roses)

[plansrme]

Can you just paint them the color of your grass? They wouldn't stand out so much if they were not so light. Most anything else, as flat as your yard is, is going to either be very complicated or stick out like a sore thing.

 

Terri

Terri

[Teachin'Mine]

Your home and landscaping are beautiful!!

 

To help them blend in more, I'd buy some good quality fake turf and either glue it on top, or secure some velcro and keep them in place that way. Then I'd build or buy a loveseat swing set to put between the two. Maybe some flowering vines to cover the swing set frame, and the covers will no longer be the focus. :)

[Julie in CA]

DH says if he stands too long in the yard, I might plant a flowerbed around him. Smart guy. :D

 

By the way, I LOVE the look of your home. Very pretty and very lovely home and yard.

Lol! My dh loves his huge lawn, but I really don't. Every chance I get, I add another huge flower bed and equip it with drip lines (though mostly in the back yard for now). Just to the left out of frame in the picture that has the manhole covers, I have a low brick planter that extends across the front of our house, and then ends in a round circular flower bed around the side of the house, about 6' away from the covers. I should have tried to include that in the pictures.

 

Thanks for the compliment regarding the house and yard. We lived in a falling-down shack (literally) for 12 years with our 5 kids, while we saved to build our house. We have a farm, so there was no in-between where you move up from a "starter house" to an "in-between house" to a "dream house". We built the house that (Lord willing), we will die in, and then pass down to our dc, so one of them can live here with their family. It's difficult to do nowadays...pass down a farm & family heritage/home.

[Julie in CA]

To help them blend in more' date=' I'd buy some good quality fake turf and either glue it on top, or secure some velcro and keep them in place that way. [/quote']

Hmm...if I could get some that would blend even a little, I think I might be content with that. The lids themselves are actually painted green, and the color isn't bad, though it's hard to tell from the picture. Still, a little fake turf might work for me.

Thanks!