Our back yard has always had drainage issues, mainly with pooling in the middle/back. Had new sod put in 4 weeks ago, and the soil graded, however they had to keep it low somewhere for the water to drain (side and slopes to the back corner) We dug 18 inches away from fence and down to fence line as previous soil was above fence line and wanted to avoid the fence rotting, planned on filling that area with stone and a garden along the back. Now we have a large pool of standing water along that dug out trench, which keeps getting deeper as we try to run it to avoid a large puddle drowning the sod. It does eventually soak in, but the ground is pure mud and spongy. Water from the neighbours property is coming over as well, also low in that back corner.

We can’t figure out what to do. Initial plan of putting down some landscape fabric and filling it with crushed stone/river rock is probably not enough to help with drainage. Husband is thinking of renting a fence auger and digging down 15 (15!) holes, filling with stone and connecting them with small drainage ditches. I was thinking maybe 1 deep hole with stone, and planting a water garden in that back corner with water loving plants.

We have no idea what we’re doing.

Any ideas of what we could do that would create some decent drainage? Or better off to just hire a landscaper to figure it out for us?

Thanks for any help or advice!