I would guess there are some municipal constraints that control what you can do with a spring. It might be smarter to landscape in a way that allows the water to ebb and flow than to try to shunt if off your property - if that is where mother nature and the city decree that it should be. Also, where do you want the water to go - check that it is OK for it to go there. The more you can tell (and show) about the problem and the area, the better the information you will get. Karin L

Dishsoaps are a phytotoxic brew of ingredients, most if not all of which are poisonous to plants and should not be used on foliage, incorporated into grow media, or allowed to become a small fraction of the soil solution. The question isn't whether or not these harsh surfactants will cause damage, it's 'how much damage will they cause'. 'Dawn' contains at least 11 phytotoxic ingredients. Dishsoaps and other household cleaning products can destroy cuticular waxes in leaves, which compromises leaves' protective barrier against biotic pathogens and insect herbivory while also leaving the plant vulnerable to excessive water loss. Detergent solutions that make their way into the grow medium where they come in contact with root cells can quickly dissolve the lipid membrane surrounding cells, killing the cells and inhibiting water/ nutrient uptake. Hair cells growing as appendages off larger roots do the lion’s share of assimilating water and nutrients, and these very delicate cells would be the first casualty of any detergent in the root zone. When establishing new plantings with media containing dry bark/peat, measure out the volume of medium required to fill the pot. Put half of it in a bucket or tub, wet thoroughly, stir, add the dry fraction, mix well, wait 15 minutes. Water and free water vapor from the wet soil will quickly diffuse into the dry soil particles, 'breaking' any tendency of the dry particles toward hydrophobicity well within the span of 15 minutes, leaving the grower with a pot full of grow medium which is evenly moistened and ready to receive plants. Al

Wow, I am using the same rainforest brown marble and almost your exact paint color in my bathroom remodel. It looks great! Congrats!

Since the caption on the photo says that it is a new home, I would suggest that you just live with it for a year to see what it actually does and how wet it is for how long. In spring, melted snow combined with rain and in some areas some frost in the ground as well as your soil texture will make for damp spots that may dry out fairly quickly once the melt has seeped into the ground and the plants get leaves and begin using water. You may also find that there are native plants there already that are perennial that die back to the ground in winter. Once you have a handle on what it actually looks like over the course of this early spring and your growing season then you can start to think about what if anything you want to do with it. For this season: - get a soil test done for texture, pH, and nutrients so that you have some idea of what your soil is like. This will influence what plants might be happy there eventually. - Find out what zone you are in. Again, this will help determine what plants might be happy where you are. http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-michigan-2012-usda-plant-zone-hardiness-map.php - Take a photo once a week of this spot. That way you will have a record of how it changes over the course of the year, and not have to guesstimate. It will tell you not only about moisture, but also light levels and what plants are there currently. Light levels and moisture will also give you an idea of what plants might do well here. - Do research on sources: What places in your area sell plants and of what type; for instance do they have any native plants or only ones bred for garden use? Are there sources of free compost or mulch in your area such as a farm with composted manure or municipal compost or a dump site for the chips generated by the power company when they trim back lines? Does anyone deliver mulch in bulk? - Look for areas that resemble yours in others' yards or in demonstration gardens, nurseries or an arboretum. Take photos of whole plants and close-ups and get them IDed on the Name that Plant forum here on GW if they don't have labels which will give you a palette of plant material that might work well in your setting. - Get the trees there IDed. (Again, good photos of the entire tree and closeup of twigs should be enough to post of the Name that Plant forum.) Some trees are better at sharing space than others. - Think about what you want from this area: a place for kids to build forts, a woodland garden, an expanse of unblemished lawn, etc. - Are there deer and do they often create issues in folks' yards when they eat plants? What, if anything you decide to do with this area will depend on a whole range of factors, not just earliest spring moisture levels, so rather than doing something fast that is doomed to fail, it will help to go into the process with as much information as possible so that you aren't simply throwing away money. It isn't a quick fix type of issue.