SFGate

ASVInteriors So you want it to puddle in your lawn - or you want to send the runoff somewhere else? If so where?

Judy M Our builder installed a swale for runoff to the rear of our property .
It slopes down very gradually ending to a drain that takes the water to another area.

We added flat river rocks to create a dry creek look, but the water it collects has to go somewhere, so consider that in the plan.

Rick Stehno thanks for the comments. i was thinking of either collecting the water in a small pond with a pipe underground that empties into the street, or terminate the river bed with some big rocks to break up the flow.

ASVInteriors You could do that very easily, and even have dry pond basin in the fashion of this image below... one the water comes it will drain through a rocky basin. You can intersperse these with wild grasses or plants that are suited to xeriscaping and so you make a great feature out of a practical solution.

Rick Stehno asvinteriors, thanks for the comment. my only concern is that i can get a lot of water coming thru. i am attaching a photo. the water comes from the backyard and a lot from my neighbors on the left. i have a natural indentation/swale on the side of my house and it runs into my front yard and deposits weeds/silt/other stuff and it creates this "brown" spot that is hard to get green or grass to grow in it. 1 more thing is that i have a french drain that terminates in my front yard (in the middle of the brown patch in the photo) so not only do i get runoff but i can get this french drain water to pop up in the front lawn.
thanks

Ironwood Builders A civil engineer can help with the hydrological issues here. I would advise hiring one for an initial consultation. We've had fairly elaborate drainage plans drafted from our site CAD drawings for less than $2K. Discuss fees before setting appointments. Best of luck!

evelyn Also consider a rain garden. It is a recessed area filled with native plants that holds the runoff until it can soak in or evaporate. A landscape architect can help you design one.

Garden Tech Horticultural Services LLC I've used products from a company called NDS, go to thier website: ndspro.com , they have all kinds of systems for adressing drainage. I agree with the idea of a raingarden. A vegetated planting bed will help abosrb/disperse the water and silt. The trick is to choose plants that do not mind the occasional flooding but also arent dependent on constant moisture. There are many native wetland plants that are suitable for this. The turfgrass is likely suffering from the extremes of the flooding, all the more reason to create a planting bed there.

lorna_kw to add to the rain garden discussion, in Calif. there is a "soil" mix--certain formula of components-- that is specified for such ponds and swales for commercial/govt. installations. Its the base in our little rain garden--seems to be working, but haven't had huge storm since we constructed it a year ago, so we'll see!