Hmm...we have our own water problem here we're trying to figure out, but yours seems a bit more solvable than mine! It seems that maybe to talk to the city could be a solution, especially since you said that when they put sidewalks in, it has made your problem worse. You may be able to have them regrade the area near the sidewalk so that the water flows onto the street and into drainage pipes properly. If not, then back to your plans. If the water is not backing up into your yard (and nearing your foundation), but rather just pooling in the dirt area shown in your picture, I would think about planting some shrubs that are water loving and would soak up puddles quickly. Maybe something like a dappled willow? I'm still learning a lot about plants, but someone else here who is much more knowledgeable could guide you better I'm sure! Or you could do what's been suggested to me--a dry river bed (but mine would be a 15 foot wide one with really substantial rocks, so not a few hour DIY project!)If you filled that are in with small river rock and then did some plantings, it would be pretty and multipurpose as well. Just a few thoughts. I would call the city first though to see what they say.

We mulched in our whole back yard. (not the large bark pieces) but the small nugget kind. Mulch: keeps in the moisture, so you water your plants less, Keeps the dust down (not as well as crushed granite) Is cooler than crushed granite smells good Is easier to walk on than crushed granite (but not as easy as grass) Bio-degrades into the soil eventually so it enriches your soil. (and make it easier to dig in the soil if you have too) There is little upkeep except to refresh it every year or two. No more raking (or blowing) for little stuff like you would with crushed granite But it it easy to rake up thing lite the large abounts of leaves from this winter's frost. You can purchase bulk mulch from Western Organics and have it delivered to your home. I suggest when starting out from scratch to put down 8 inchess. this will allow for several inches of settling allows several years of use before you have to thing about refreshing an inch or two. Then ever year or every other year we add some more bags on top freshen it all up and replace what has now turned into soil. We bought ours 10-15 bags at a time. For the last few years K-mart has sales all summer for 4 large bags for $10. We would take the ad to Lowes and they would beat the ad price by 10%+. ORIGINALLY we had APS drop of their medium chipped tree trimmings. A whole semi load onto the driveway and side yard. We wheelbarrowed it all to the back yard. We had purchased a used chipper (a really sturdy one) and spent the next several months chipping in our spare time. This got us the first 8 inches of much we started with. It was the cheapest way for us. It only cost us the used chipper - which we sold for the same we paid for it afterwords. Basically we got it FREE except for some sweat equity, but we spent time together doing it. Had we had the extra cash at the time we would have just bought the bulk mulch to begin with. vicki

Hi if you want to post a photo and don't have a photobucket or simillar account use the website I listed to upload 1.5 mb or smaller photo's and then copy the full size image code for websites and paste in to the text here. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: Image hosting website

Hi all, hi kos, I've been lurking after Christinmk recommended this forum to me but haven't posted before. Can't resist a picture! You need the angle brackets like Christin says so look for that choice. Here's your nice picture in different sizes that you can set: I have limited experience with seeds and gardening so forgive me if I want to actually be able to answer a question. On the link below. I've purposely left out the angle bracket at the beginning and end of each line. That's because the brackets would make the picture show and not the code :) A couple of variations in the code work and a lot depends on choices that your company (image schack) gives you. Gardenweed posts gorgeous pics so I'm sure her instructions will help you! What are those pretty flowers? Best wishes, River Here is a link that might be useful: See my post of Feb 2, 11 with sample code