We had a similar problem. I researched "drainage issues" in some of the other forums and decided we needed a french drain. DH wasn't sure, so we called a landscape designer out for a consult. He agreed with me and made some suggestions.

DH dug a small trench, sloping it away from the yard to a lower area, lined it with pea gravel, put in perforated hose (4" diameter), and covered it with more pea gravel. It's now underneath our gravel pathway. So far it's worked fine, but we won't know until the winter rains whether it really does solve the issue.

You might try searching the forums for "french drain".

Our yard and our patio under our deck all slope toward our house and we had some flooding situations for a while. We cut the concrete on the patio and dug a trench down our outside wall and sealed the wall. That pretty much took care of the flooding but I also dug some trenches all the way across parallel to the back of the house and 10 feet away so the water would hit them and drain sideways around the house, hopefully. You might consider some trenches and/or swales (mounds)across the slope above your garden to channel water sideways or help it sink in. Permaculture practice is to do this. zone8 grandma's French drains would take this even further. This wouldn't fit in well with mowing grass but would fit in with beds of flowers.

Thanks a lot.We figured out we need some kind of trench , who would you approach for that job? What is French drain?
8 Grandma: did you DH connected the perforated hose to existing drains to drain to sump? Where did you re-direct the water to?
Thanks a lot..

who would you approach for that job?

It's simple enough that you can DIY if you want. If you want to hire someone, I'd call around (look under "landscape designer"). When you talk to them, tell them it's a drainage issue and ask about their experience.

did you DH connected the perforated hose to existing drains to drain to sump?
That is one option

Another option is to do what we did. In our case, our lot is on a slope. The side of our yard drops off steeply and the slope is mature cedar trees and salal. So we trenched to the slope and directed the water there. The cedar trees and salal will enjoy the water. We could have connected the drainpipe to our stormdrains, but felt that directing it down the slope was a better solution (in our particular case). I should point out that we own the area that we directed the water to - I would not direct it to a neighbor's yard.

Here is a link that might be useful: French Drains

thanks a lot8 grandma very helpful link.Now I have lots of information on it.If I follow the slope it will take me right into my veg garden ( I don't want that its far too wet.) The other option would be to connect it to the drain that goes directly to the sump.The water as it goes down damages my interlocking pavers removing sand and constantly feeding and supplying soil from other parts of the garden.The only option I have ( I think) is to put another sump which would be very costly or direct it into existing sump whch is just by my vegie garden.Thanks for the link and if anyone has another idea please let me know.My interlocking pavers are full of weeds constantly and to make it worse I can't power wash them because it would make it even worse by removing the rest of the sand.I need to first fix the drainage , make sure it works before I can deal with the pavers.It really hurts because we re-did our yard totally 3 years ago hoping it would resolve this problem and it made it worse.Now I think we outght to do it ourselves , the instructions here are really great.O boy I need lots of luck on this one..Thanks again

scarletta,
What about putting in a dry well? You could direct the drain to it. Just a thought.

If you don't have deer and obnoxious wildlife like racoons you could consider a long narrow water feature.:-)

Thanks I have 2 questions:
1.8Grandma: dry well? Have no idea what that is? Would it attract mosquitos? Or drain flies? Please let me know more about it.
2.Hemnancy:Long narrow water feature? sounds good but I now have a problem with mosqitos as its always moist if not wet.
I am looking for the least work and effective method...
right now the water drains down my pavers , steps, my roses are soaked wet and I lost at few as a result over the last Spring.The water then goes into my veg garden.Not a happy scenario and we are getting lots of mosquitos right now.I don't have to use sprinklers.Many thanks

scarletta
I'm attaching a link to an article that tells you how you can build your own dry well (and explains what it is).

Have you considered simply moving your veggie garden to a higher area and planting a bog garden in your soggy area?

If that isn't feasible, then perhaps a dry well is the solution, perhaps combined with raising your veggie beds.

Best of luck - it's hard work!

Here is a link that might be useful: Build Your Own Dry well

WE have had much the same problem at our place and have been working on it for years. When the house was first built the basement was dug and then the rains came. The water came down the hill and filled up the basement. So the architect was well aware of the problem and put in huge storm drains and they built what is called a curtain drain above the house. It is basically a ditch that should collect water and direct it into these storm drains to carry water to the lower part of the property. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of building on the hills above us and the underground system has changed and we get more and more soggy lawns around the house, not to mention some going through the crawl space. So we have had another curtain drain dug closer to the house -- this time by a lawn man. this one is filled with pea gravel and the grass has actually closed over the top -- it is about 10 inches wide. But with our clay soil we still get puddles in the wintertime. We got some advice from an employee at our municipality who looked after grass playing fields and parks. Or an expert who looks after a golf course might be a good resourse, even to point you to a person that can do the work. It's not easy. About the pavers. Ours don't flood but they get sooty mould in the wintertime and we have to powerwash them or they look awful. So far, we haven't had to replace the sand. And I bought myself a little flame thrower that uses propane to burn out the weeds between them. It's quite satisfying. I guess I'm a fire bug.

thanks again: Your replies are making me realize that I should have posted here few years back rather than relying on a professional landscapers to plan it propely.No offence to any landscapers on this forum, but we spent lots of $$$ to have it done.
8grandma: WE can't move vegie garden and yes its raised at the bottom part gradually.It starts at the same level and gradually it's raised.The pavers at the bottom ( right after the elevation) are full of moss.In any case I will read the link and learn more.
2.Dottyinduncan: I sympatize with you , at least we have no problem inside the house only in the yard.Golfcourse person'a opinion is an excellent idea thanks.
With all your help I am slowly gaining some confidence that perhaps we can get it done properly this time.
When our drainage gets fixed properly we will attend to the pavers.Right now the drainage must be adressed and that in itself may help the pavers .Keep your ideas coming they are all appreciated.Many thanks its nice to know that I can get some help with it.Thanks so very much..

Scarleta- what is planted on the slope leading down to the vegetable garden? Is it possible to redesign that part of the landscaping?

The water feature suggestion fits your problem but not your desire to keep expenses and work down, though some people might be able to do it cheaply. Water features mostly require pumps and filtration, occasional emptying and cleaning, to do right. Fish are what keeps the mosquitoes from breeding in the pond. I like them and they look nice in someone else's yard but I had a pond without a filter or pump and it worked OK but racoons trashed it and ate all the fish then stuck around to each my peaches and grapes, so I have given up on them as they are too attractive to wildlife. If interested you could look at the gallery of the /ponds forum and also at the /bog forum.

zone 8 grandma (I'm one too :-) what is a professionally installed dry well made of? The last time our basement flooded after we sealed the wall it was the dry well at the bottom of our drainspout and close to our house that failed to drain and caused water to come up from beneath our foundation. We solved that problem by adding a very long surface drain pipe to the bottom of the drainspout to take the water away from the house instead. It's good advice on the website to have the dry well away from the house.

Here is a link that might be useful: ponds forum gallery

Thanks to all for the information and good luck with your problem grandma8. We have a similar problem, fortunately not with our pavers - we have a drive and patio made from pavers, but they aren't in the area that is being flooded.

It's good to hear of kind people who will not drain excess water into their neighbours yards, as that's why we have a flooding problem. We have a nasty neighbour who does what she can to create problems for us and we've just built a new home for our retirement! She turns her hose on, directed to flow under our fence, then goes out for the day! Much to our amazement and distress, it's happened on several occassions ... we try to monitor this, but aren't
always aware of the flowing water until we have soggy ground and pooling. We have called the municipality (who don't like to get involved in such matters) they will be sending off a letter re: bi-laws.

We think a practical solution for us will be to put in a french drain - thank you for the idea. The area the water affects is on a slope to the back of our property which is woodlands (cedar, alder, etc. We have a big fir tree that
soaks up a good bit of the water once it makes it's way to
it's base. The area that is most affected is yet to be
landscaped - we'd hoped to plant a veggie garden in the area. As for now it's a muddy mess! And we aren't certain
what to do with it for now.

We can put the trench just inside our fence that parallels
our neighbours yard and will give this a try.

Thanks again!

You guys are trully magical.Many, many thanks to all of you.Of course I will be doing lots of reading here before anything gets done here.Many thanks for directions from everyone who responded.
1.Hemnancy: the slope just before the veg garden has a row of roses.( I lost several over last winter/spring because their roots are basicaly in water.On the other side I have pavers and veg garden.Garlick does sort of ok in that area.Then it slowly gets elevated and contiunues into veg garden.Going up the slope from the roses is lawn constantly wet.When we re-did the garden few years back with professional help we explained the problem so the top part of the lawn was converted into an are of some shrubs that we were told like water and will basicaly help to absorb it.They are doing well , but this in turn created even worse situation because the dirt from there gets washed down my pavers and supplies lots of fertilizer and dirt also so I m constantly pulling it out no end to it.By me pulling on them I know I am removing the sand but the constantly draining water removes it anyways and takes it down the pavers and by my garage door also.I actually have to brush it away from the garage door because it would go into the garage.There is a drain there but the slope takes the water away from that small ineffective drain.We already have a water feature in front of the house so at this point we will won't put one more.
2.Mdvaden of Oregon: I wish you were closer to me maybe you could help us out here..Thanks for the info I will read it all.I have been working on my soil for few years and that is the reason I can even grow vegies there.It was far more worse when we moved here.I will read and learn more.I would be most happy if by fixing soil I could improve it, but the soil gets the water constantly from the slope and I am improving it but it won't stop pouring there unless I direct it somewhere else.Thanks again.
3.Sylvia forest : what a terrible neighbour you have .So sorry about it.We had a similar situation but the water was just dripping from the soaking hose right into our house.We told them to re-direct it and it was done.They also have it right against the fence but not for extended periods of time so its not a problem .In any case its on the site that we don't have a drainge problem.If they don't respond well to you explaining it I would be tempted to do exactly the same and direct your hose right into their yard.This way they will see exactly what you are talking about.It may work, but it also may make things worse between you and them.You have to make this decision .Good luck.
Once more many thanks and please do keep your ideas coming they are all great.I am coming to conclusion that we will do it ourselves this time around.Thanks so very much.

We live on a hill and we have a two-tiered hill that eroded when we had a lot of rain. We have clay that doesn't absorb the water. It all runs down the hill and takes out everything in it's path. What should we do to redirect the water?