Any progress on this issue? Do not add any soil to you property until you have a full drainage plan! ÃÂ Getting an engineer involved is advisable, but expensive, I know, I am one. :-) ÃÂ Consider these issues: 1. Drainage should take water away from the house, as quickly as possible, w/o flooding or causing erosion to you or others. Water near the house can cause many problems: ÃÂ movement near the foundation can move soil, which could cause the house to move. More immediately is the dry rot the moisture will cause to the wood of the house. Mold can form ÃÂ Maintaining any vegetation is a problem. Mosquitos will love it.ÃÂ 2. Adding fill material improperly could make matters worse.ÃÂ 3. Water always flows downhill. So, where is the water going. Try to follow it. The best way is to get the elevations of your property surveyed. I love the ability of a contour map to communicate slope of the ground. And water will follow the slope.ÃÂ 4. Decide on the outlets for water from your property. ÃÂ Drain water to the street, if possible. ÃÂ If not, build dry wells, but check percolation rates carefully. ÃÂ Be very careful about draining water on to neighboring property.ÃÂ 5. Find the sources of the water.ÃÂ 6. ÃÂ Create drain paths from (or near) sources to the outlets: There are several options to do this: (a) ditch, which needs a slope of at least 1%, 3 % is recommended; (b) Underground drain, such as a French Drain, which needs no slope, or a mini-storm drain pipe, which only it needs at least 0.1% slope, or combine French Drain and pipe; (c) pressure pipe,collect the water at a central spot and then pump the water. There are a lot of pages about all of these issues on the Web. This can be a big job.ÃÂ Good luck!

1. ) yes. Anything you can do to help with drainage will help. Regrading, adding drains. 2.) Bermudagrass tends to thin out over a season if it is a shady location. In moderate shade it will emerge in late spring with the rest of the lawn but if it doesn't get sun it will thin out. After a number of seasons like this you don't have much there. There really isn't anything you can do about it. You can buy seed that is more shade tolerant but that will look wierd since it will be green year round and be more lush than the bermuda. 3.) Yes, you can use herbicide on the weeds. If broadleaf weeds, weedBgone is commonly used.

The International Residential Code (IRC) which forms the core of most statewide building codes requires grading to provide a minimum of 6" of fall within the first 10 feet of the home for drainage purposes. The National Association of Home Builders publishes Residential Construction Performance Guidelines for Professional Builders and Remodelers. Some builders use it as a quality standard. It provides the following with regard to site drainage: "To ensure proper drainage within 10 feet around the home, the contractor will establish necessary grades and swales within the property if the work is included in the contract. Standing water will not remain for extended periods within 10 feet of the home after a rain (generally no more than 24 hours), except in swales that drain other areas or in areas where sump pumps receive discharge. In these areas a longer period can be anticipated (generally no more than 48 hours). Water may stand longer during periods of heavy rains, especially when heavy rains occur on successive days. No grading determination will be made while frost or snow is on the ground or while the ground is saturated."

James, I have a very similar issue. I noticed that the soil around my Limelight hydrangeas & other shrubs was soggy. I moved everything to a good-quality bed until we could determine the root cause, then resolve. The planting bed is sandy. The holes originally dug for each shrub were big, but not large. They were filled w/good soil. We discovered that the planting bed sandy soil (including some clay), is as hard as a boulder in many areas. To be able to dig, our new landscaper had to use an auger & pick axe. Water does not /cannot drain. . . there is nowhere for it to go, so it sits. OPTIONS: We considered several, including: Create deep berms to plant the shrubs in. Excavate a 2-foot depth of the hard soil from the 230-foot long planting bed & filling it w/good-quality soil. This option wasn't really feasible, because drip irrigation is already installed. ( This should have been done before irrigation was installed. ) EXPERIMENT: Our landscaper dug 3 holes in different problem areas of the bed. Each hole has a diameter 1' wider than is usually recommended, and is as deep as needed to reach soft sand (4') He layered dry leaves, rocks, then 3' of good soil. We covered each hole w/mulch, as we do for our shrubs. For 3 months, we observed how the area drained after irrigation & rain. It appears that the water is draining well. The planting holes are not soggy, so we're going to transplant a shrub into each of the 3 experimental holes when the weather cools here on southern shore of Massachusetts. I will observe the drainage & determine if this solution worked. If so, get out the auger to dig more holes!