Sometimes long and expensive is the solution. A friend in Phoenix just trenched both sides of his house to drain water from back to front. It needed it for the monsoon season. Is your low spot on your property? It should be between the properties. Houston is pretty flat. Is there a lower spot than the street? Or do you live in the low spot?

Out of curiosity, is this an annual problem or something that is just happening this year? Houston has been unusually wet this year.

wesottinger, thanks for asking - and thank you for confirming that this has been an unusually wet spring for Houston. I'm not a native Texan, and have only been a homeowner here for a couple of years, so I'm not really 'calibrated' on how much rainfall we normally receive here.

Last year, this portion of the yard had it's soggy moments, but nothing that truly alarmed me. It didn't have as much green grass as it does now, mainly because it was being used as a cart-path between the front and back yards (that is no longer the case, we always make sure this areas sees no traffic now).

This year, it's much more of a concern... it may be best for me to wait. The only point lower than this 'valley' between our houses is on the other side of the house. Installing a french drain would be an enormous effort.

Would putting some builders sand down later in the year be safe? This would level out the area a little more, making this less of a depression. Rainfall would still slope away from both houses, but at least the pooling effect of the standing water would be spread out over a larger area, perhaps...?

Is there a shallow swale or depression on that side to carry water to the street (preferably) or to the lowest point not in your neighbor's yard :-)? That would be my drainage 'go to' before a french drain. . Maybe you could simply extend the existing depression to the street to allow drainage. I don't mean a big ugly ditch, we are talking about a shallow 'dip' that allows the water to exit your yard.

For what it's worth, another poster from Houston has had a lake in her yard for a couple of weeks due to the overwhelming rainfall. She said that she won't be able to walk out there for a couple of weeks, the water is no longer standing, but is a muddy mess.

I live on sand and although St Augustine grows well in my sand, in my opinion it's too difficult to keep it hydrated. Obviously Houston is much wetter than Fort Worth so that idea may work for you.

I kinda agree with the above. If it were me i would get lots of soil and try and fill in the depression and change the angle of the entire yard. Have it slope away from the house. Ive also heard about the shampoo method above, id try those two inexpensive method first before anything else.

klawn, 3wmaccess, thanks for your input - much appreciated! My neighbors house sits higher than mine - so adding enough soil to affect the drainage would be a pretty large endeavor and definitely kill any grass.

The surfactant isn't a bad idea - morpheuspa suggests that for dry or temperamental areas of the lawn, so I'm going to perform a second application of that.

I can tell you're going to nickel and dime this until you've spent more in nickels and dimes than the solution would have cost you. If you have a low spot, the ONLY solution is to make it not the low spot. It sounds like you can't raise the area properly without redirecting the water toward you or your neighbor. Then the solution is to trench it out one way or another. I would go visit some mom and pop nurseries and ask them who the best landscape professionals are. Then get recommendations from them. They will be able to see the 3-D profile of the situation and suggest a solution. I suppose you could pump the water out, but then you have electricity and pumps and more problems with the added complexity of the solution. Gravity can be your friend. Right now it's your problem.

I am one for re-contouring the yard and making it so it will drain naturally. While additional pictures would help, sometimes removing the sod, digging a trench a couple inches deep and replacing the sod for a couple of feet will be adequate to drain the low area.