Muddy Yard/ Drainage Issue - HELP!

Hey guys, i've got a nice suburban home with a small backyard in Houston. It doesn't rain often, but when it does, it stays in my backyard. Looking for some help on a drainage issue.


This deck is new, less than a 3 weeks in. There were 48 16" deep holes dug with an auger to set posts for decking support. I kept some of that dirt spread in the area where the grass was under the new decked area. The rest of the dirt, i moved to a low lying area with minimal grass.


You can see in the area just above the date stamp is where i put the dirt. It became really muddy after some small rains and never dried out.



Last summer, i had some dying grass along the fence line to the right of the picture, where the grass is missing in the above picture. I got some sod and placed over grass without removing it up. I believe this eliminated the drainiage line in the yard between the two houses and caused water to fall back into my yard.


After putting in the deck, i routed one gutter downspout into an already existing low area between the deck and hose on back wall of house. Since there is healthy grass there, it doesn't stay long.


Along the side of the house i have another gutter system that is directed to the fence.

What i did without thinking was removing the elevated grass i added last summer along the fence to have a draiage area along fence line towards front of house. I put that grass on top of the muddy area, even though it wasn't enough.

What i'm thinking of doing is getting some dry mulch/bark and adding it to the muddy area to get some moisture out of the ground, tilling the low spot to get workable soil (it's really sloppy and clay like from the post holes i dug), excivating an area so it slopes toward the fence accounting for the fact that i'll have to add sod which is 2-3" tall.

What would you guys do in this case?

 

I would look for possible other low lying or drainage re-routing areas. If you have a slope going to another yard/city drain, setting up a sort of funneling system would be beneficial.

I placed some French drains years ago, and they worked wonders for the post-rain standing water problem. Very easy and fairly inexpensive to do. I routed them close to the city drain area. Granted I did slightly build up the low areas when I dug the drains, but I didn't want the yard to look weird with some random elevated or low spots. Basically kept the same grade of the yard, but more uniform… if that made sense.

I would look into that and see if it's a possibility.

If not, your yard is a sensible size, so re-grading the yard so there are NO low spots could work. Granted that would be an ALL IN, more expensive strategy. And once you level it off, get a pallet or two of grass Bam, your done. But, you could add a sprinkler system, gas line for a grill, electrical to any area of the yard for ambient, mood, and/or decorative lights; waterfall feature, the options are almost endless.