Geoff,

I once installed a "french drain"...much like your idea of rock. Dig a 12"
wide ditch the length of the soggy area and continue the ditch to the curb
or drive (assuming the street is lower). Slope the ditch to the curb or
drive or a good discharge spot. Place 6" of large rock in the bottom of the
ditch, then 4" perforated PVC pipe, then another 6" of rock. Then fill in
the ditch and replace the sod.

My yard just happended to have a storm sewer manhole in it...so, I ran the
4" PVC into the manhole.

Regards,

"Geoff Cashman" wrote in message
...
Greetings,

Of course it's spring in the Northern hemisphere, and with it
for this area of the world (Midwest, US) comes quite a bit of
rain. With the rain comes a muddy, soft area of my lawn that
my lawnmower slithers through, I slide through, and the
mosquitos lay eggs in.

The area in question is roughly oval, 10' x 15'. The yard is
slightly inclined from one side (neighbor to left) to the other
(neighbor to right). I believe water is draining into my yard,
then slowly passing through to the neighbor to my right's yard.
I do not want to increase rate of drainage to my neighbor, as
this would probably incite some not to nice feelings

Opinions on how to rectify this problem? My wife and I are
considering putting a pond there, but I don't think it would
solve the drainage problems if it's a sealed-bottom pool.

I'm not a landscaper. I don't even play one on Usenet
I've got crazy ideas on how to solve this, such as stripping
the lawn in the whole area down a foot, layering in some
crushed stone, and putting soil back on top of it. But,
as I have no experience with such matters, I have no
confidence this would work. I've also thought of putting
a bunch of soggy-soil loving plants there, but the area
only gets about 3-4 hours of sunlight a day, if that.
Soggy soil and not a bunch of light seems a contradiction
for a plant to survive in?

-Geoff