We just moved into a house. It appears our backyard, as well as our neighbor's, is draining into a corner section of the yard and has standing water in it after it rains. There is a planting bed around the perimeter of our yard and grass in the middle of the yard. Most of the water is in the corner of the planting bed and some in the grass immediately in front of it. We were thinking of maybe tilling the soil and adding some more nutrients in it to make it lighten it up. There are no plants there right now. We also thought of "trying to regrade" it a little by ourselves to make it drain all in to bed. Then try to plant water loving plants. We have small kids and don't want them to be around the standing water because of mosquitoes. DO you think this is a good plan, or would you recommend anything else? Thank you!

Hi,

Adding or mixing someting into the existing soil I don't think will solve the drainage issue. I think the best long term solution lies in trying to regrade or raise the area so the water drains away from the corner. This may or may not be possible given the surrounding area and where other properties lie. if is it possible to grade towaard a naturally slooping spot and perhaps some type of drain tile is your best solution. Raising the area also should work if that is possible. I don't think keeping it as wet area and planting water plants is an option as you wil still be dealing with wet soil standing water and the insect issue which you don't want.