Plants will never dry up a ground water source. Over time, plants will build up soil from their decomposing leaves and so on but it will take a centuries.

You can choose plants that will grow with wet feet and enjoy wetland gardening. If you want dry land, you will have to provide artificial drainage or add fill to raise the soil level above the water table.

And don't fill in a wet land or change drainage without checking local bylaws. It may be illegal.

Cardinal flowers, cinnamon ferns, and jack-in-the-pulpit would look great planted around the pond. Some of the neatest plants grow in or on the edge of freshwater bogs and ponds. I take a lot of hikes throughout the summer months in the cedar bogs near my house here in DE, and the diverse amount of plants always amazes me.

Just realized you are from PA, is it a spring making a mush out of the red clay? If it is I have heard of people putting in perforated piping amongst a large amount of rocks to divert the spring and ease the mud. A french drainage system.

Thanks for the info!
Hi streamy22! Yes, the few warm days and torrential rains have turned our yard into a mud pit yet again. How'd you know? ;> But now it's going to freeze again (waah!) so we'll have some frosty mud instead. One of these days I'll finish that walkway....

My sister just purchased a horse farm around the Harrisburg area, and after helping them finish the barns I was pretty happy with our Delaware sand. The red clay is very greasy, and hard to deal with. Meanwhile it just rained three inches down here yesterday, and the ground is already dried off. I will say that there are some good field crops produced by that red clay though. Hopefully the dry days of late spring will come early for you.

Where might one obtain some of the listed plants, such as cardinal flowers, jack-in-the pulpit, etc.?