I'm not sure if I really want a Rain Garden, but as rexanne said, if all else fails -- I need a plan of something I can do/try. I choose to avoid fighting with the city early on, and the city really did help me out a lot in geting my larger drainage issues solved with several other parties that probably would not have helped me otherwise. They gave me power when I would have had little to none otherwise, other than paying a lawyer and hoping to recoup the costs later in a settlement. The city still has leverage with builders in other ways (even beyond permits) in that the final handover of all the builder development owned/maintained drains, sewers ... has to be approved by the city before handover occurs. So the builder pays maintenance on all stuff till its good enough for the city to take over and becomes property of the utilities dept. But if the city tells me to live with it ... then all I can do is whine and take it to a political level and whine to city council, etc. So far, they have been pretty good and actually wanted the best for me. I cooperated on this project and made is easy on them, as they could have dealt with 5 difference property owners instead ... so dealing with just me was easier. Besides a rain garden, I can only envision putting in a drain to the underground sewer (costly, but very effective) or some kind of all-season, low volume pump (like a sump or pond pump) ... but would be potentially problematic and would require electric runs throught the yard and into the wet zone ... not exactly appealing either. This is all assuming I can get them to pay for this without spending an arm and leg myself.

I have a sunny wet area like that. Maybe these will work: (after the plants grew, the soil didn't stay so wet) Winterberry holly, daylillies, chokeberries, bog iris, mock orange, rose of sharon, sedum, houtyannia(sp?), siberian iris, hosta. Just plant and try. I've found that some things that work in my yard,won't in a neighbors yard and viceversa. Good Luck

Thanks everybody. I'm no soil expert, but to me the ground looks sandy and has lots of larger rocks in it (it's definitely not red clay). It also seems similar on other parts of the property, so I'm thinking this is just the nature of this area. Given that it's so sandy/rocky, it's a bit surprising that it holds so much water. I'm going to eventually have to divert some of the runoff to be able to do anything with it, but I'll never want to get it too dry because the well is close by. It may actually be a plus in the summer when everything dries up a bit, but I like to garden year 'round so I thought I'd pick everybody's brains for edibles that were known to be particularly wet-feet tolerant. That said, I have bigger problems at the moment. As far as I can tell, the ground is devoid of nutrients and organic matter (though I need to do an actual soil test). It does grow some weeds and field grass, but nothing is thriving. I also had several cool veggie starts going so I planted those into a small dry hump in the field a month or so ago. As of now they are looking anemic and showing very poor color. I guess I'm not gardening in the fertile river valley any more. :( Luckily I have a pretty good stock pile of horse/rabbit manure, and we compost diligently. So hopefully I can at least get the dry hump fertile by next year while I plot my drainage issues for the majority of the field. Thanks again for the suggestions everybody. -Rob

Opened burners, just in MY mind.. seem to allow more control. Sealed burners, again, all this is my opinion so take it with a grain of salt, were really designed for people that don't want to make a mess when they cook, period. They are not efficient and I think deter from the ability to create a good even heating distribution, which can keep you from being able to regulate a flame enough to do low simmers. Don't worry about a company like GE being sold. So much else to worry about.. it is GE.. as long as you have a good warranty, it'll get fixed if it has any issue. Ya know, the Bluestar comes to mind... that is a hell of a nice range. I think the I think the Culinary 36" goes for around 4k. Again.. remember, my opinion only.. and I do not work for Eurostoves etc.. but, if they sold it, I'd get it from them simply because they beat every price I could find AND.. when you have an issue, you can call them. The culinarian jumps it to like 7k.. so out of your price range, but I think they have a Precision series with open burners for like 5k. Since I have a Capital, I can tell you, dealing with them and with Trevor.. I always get someone on the line. I know there are folks that say they cannot get any help, but I had Captial people calling me and reassuring me for months before I ever got or bought mine. For you, it is about price and that is totally good. So, I would seriously look at the Bluestar and maybe the Capital Prescision. Call up Trevor at eurostoves and ask him about comparisons and see what sort of price you can get. BUT.. if the GE is what you like, that too is a solid choice and don't sweat the warranty / transfer of the company. I would, however, not "settle". If you do not like the burners, you will not like the way it cooks. Cooking is as much about FUN and loving what you have to work with as it is about the quality of the item you purchase. Cooking, to me, is something I look forward to. I know that if I had settled for something else, each time I cook I would, in a small way, remember it was not my first choice. Go with what you love. R