It was raining & I wasn't able to take great pics. This one is from my dining room window. The area is like a bowl. Water runs to the low spot from EVERY direction. Water is 4-5" deep at the lowest point. Saved photos of dry creek beds & rain gardens & commented to my husband that if we make a "pit" the water could be deeper but cover a smaller area. Others here have similar issues. Several homes have standing water where there side yards meet. U can see it from the street. In the winter, summer & fall it's fine. U see it in spring. (& now a rainy winter) Happy that is isn't in the house. The sellers on the disclosure claimed no drainage issues! We found out the first spring. I would own up to it if we ever sell but if we could attractively minimize it that would be good. Thanks.

Can you build a berm with bushes or arborvitaes to block the water flow? Try a 'French drain' to divert the water. Good luck!

Mary - I took some dirt that a neighbor didn't want - 26 wheelbarrows - put it on one side & I swear barely a difference...hard to tell from the pic but the lot is big - half an acre. Good news is it drains fast. Has gone down a lot. The path at the bottom of pic has no water now.

To me, a french drain is a hole in ground, sometimes rock filled, that serves as a temporary, hidden place for water, usually a small amount, to go. The water leaves the french drain by seeping, underground, into the surrounding soil. What would the point of installing a french drain here, be? It's hard to imagine that one could build a french drain sufficient to contain the water shown in the picture.

Nicholsworth, you make it sound that there is no possible escape route for water. If that's the case, you can do nothing at all and live with it, or construct a rain garden type affair and do some regrading (it will be a problem because of trees) to better direct the water to it.

Yardvaark - that's what I think! The water IS "trapped" so to speak since it collects there right? I don't see where a drain could go. I had this company come out (part of their name was excavating) & the guy said "I don't know" & didn't charge me a dime. I'm going to look on gardenweb and re-read the posts for standing water. After I moved here & discovered this problem the next door neighbor who has issues too said "Oh well. It goes away" & it does. There's a guy who posts - Mike from Seattle - had a pic of a swale & he said sometimes it's underwater - ever seen it? He has plants that surround it & it's attractive. I really appreciate your opinion. Totally agree with your comments. Believe it or not I've given this a lot of thought.

Here's another, larger rain pond I built a few years ago. The alder trees were cut down first, then the stumps were dug out of the ground with a bulldozer and burned. Then I bulldozed the pond out by pushing the good soil up and out onto poorer soil. When I got down to hardpan I pushed enough to the lower end to make a dam and road. The pond filled up in the Fall and went dry the next summer. It's been mowed or weed whacked a few times every summer since. The overfill drains into another pond.

The pile of brush that looks like a beaver lodge is just a pile of brush and limbs waiting to be burned when the pond dries out. The picture shows the pond about half full.

A land clearing excavation company would be the first company I would talk to to get things started. I used a borrowed bulldozer. An excavator would be a more appropriate machine now. At least get a few quotes and some different ideas from people who do that for a living. It might not be as expensive as you think. As it is, you can't do much with what you have.

Mike

You indicated some neighbors have the same problem, but you didn't say anything about an escape route for the water (which would occur outside of your property lines). One would need to know the lay of the land throughout the affected part of the neighborhood in order to know the possibilities. If other neighbors, through whose yards the "escape route" lies, are not interested in fixing the problem, you are probably stuck with the rain garden/retention pond solution.

Mike and Yardvaark - thank u both for your input. I've sort of accepted the fact that I have a "now u see it now you don't" pond. The only true escape route would be from the back thru the side yard to the street. Way too far - 120ft maybe (lot is 157ft on that side) - and the terrain undulates. The house is on a slight mound. Guess my best strategy is to make it pretty. Told my husband I thought it would be pretty to build a bridge over it & get some bog plants.

This might be an impossible question but what do u think it would cost to have it excavated? I know he's not the only fish in the sea but the one person that looked at it years ago seemed completely uninterested in working on it.

There are too many variables (and we can't see them all) so you will need to have someone visit the site in order to provide a price.

Reasonable answer. Thought the question was somewhat impossible. Lots of trees to consider so we can't just dig as big & deep as we want. I have access to free large (12-15") ash logs. Could I line them up vertically & surround an area with them? If I did would they hold any water?

I also live in Indiana and had a similar problem this past spring when we moved into the state. Part of the issue is that the soil here is clay, so the soil doesn't absorb the water. It just sits there. For quite awhile.

I found an "outlet" by observing closely the lay of the land and standing out in the pouring rain (several times!), watching where the came in and where it wanted to go ----- I experimented with the drainage by making little ditches and dams with sticks and bricks -- then, when I thought I had it figured out, I made a larger dam out of gravel, dirt, rocks, and branches to limit the "incoming" water and dug a ditch for the "outgoing", lined the ditch with gravel, laid in a plastic culvert, and covered the culvert with a little gravel and more dirt. I laid more gravel and sand outwards from the ditch, and then this fall I covered the area with "good" dirt, made a few small burms (?spelling) and put a large grass mat over the little hills-- directing the water to the culvert. It looks pretty good and has stayed dry.The grass grew fast and green. Not sure how long it will last, but---

Could u post a pic? Did the standing water look anything like ours?

No water there now - but I'll try to take a pic 2moro & post.

I had very little water left...and now it's frozen.