Hi, I'm not Tammy. Guest Post by Amber

Hi, T. Taylor is taking the evening off so I'm here to tell you a story.  Once upon a time...  no, just kidding. 

Let me start by saying, I did not make this mess…  I just happen to be the lucky person to move into this house and had to fix it. 

My name is Amber and I live in Oak Ridge with my family.  We are on a well and septic tank.  Yes, I understand no one wants to talk about ugly, smelly septic tanks but they are a fact of life.  We have one and we needed some work done on it.  We called them out, ‘they’ started to look and finally found the lid under my 16 foot tall crape myrtle plant that offers the only shade to my under insulated sunroom that gets very hot.  They followed the lines to find 2 other plants (that I love) right near them and 3 more trees nearby that they just said, “we are unsure of what we will find till we get into it”. 

The big day came, the big truck came, you know the one you hope the neighbors don't see, you hope they went to work early and come home late because you just cannot admit to yourself that the “shitter was full” (have to love Christmas Vacation, if you have not seen it, please take time from your busy schedule this winter when it is not dirt digging season to enjoy one of the best X-mas movies ever).  After they unload a tractor and made quick work of my beloved myrtle and drag it back out of the way they start to work.   I’ll skip the (ugly, smelly) details, once the tank was empty the work on the lines started.  Only to find that tree roots had gotten into the lines and that it had caused the blockage.  The roots turned out to be from a tree that we had to remove about 5 years ago due to placement of it and the drive in/out of the back yard at the fence gate.  My husband was not happy over any of this but I was really glad because this meant that I my flowering magnolia, very near this spot, was safe (for now).  After a few more hours of work and a few more issues they load up the tractor and tools. 

I felt like I got lucky, only lost the one myrtle and when they started I was looking at them taking up as much as 5 tree/plants in the backyard.  BUT before the man got away he made sure to tell my husband that the magnolia was near the line, some other random plant is in a bad location, and my-my dream tree- that he would never let me plant (I got lucky, it was already here!) has to go – that would be my weeping willow.  Yes, I have a weeping willow and yes I know they are a mess and I know they are hell on a septic tank BUT I don’t care (remember I did not plant it!), I just love it, it is such a fun tree.  They made sure to tell my husband how aggressive the roots of that willow is and that it is way to near the lines, within a very short time they will be back out if we do not have the tree removed.   OK so hubby hates the tree anyway, what is it with men and weeping willows, and I already knew that the roots are bad for septic tank lines so I could only look sad when this big news was delivered to him.  

So the plan for the backyard at this point, for the summer I will enjoy my willow tree, I will enjoy watching my daughter run and play under the tree and smile every time my husband has to mow under it.  I will watch from my kitchen window and in the back of my mind I will plan on how to get another one planted at the far back of my yard, safely out of the way of the septic tank lines, this part of the plan may require my daughter and some shameless begging on her part to her dad.  Phase 2 of the summer will be to enjoy the new dirt spots in my yard and  my nice clean septic tank that we spent so much money on having repaired. 

Free advice time: If you own a house and you have a septic tank then DO NOT put a crape myrtle on top of the lid (how crazy is that).  More advice, don’t plant anything in the path of the lines.  But if you do… start saving because it will require work and a few extra dollars down the road.  The last piece of advice, if you sale this house that you planted stuff with your heart and not with your head, please tell the new owners what you did so they can save for the future repair bill.