Question
Hi Charlotte,
I am a new home owner and find out about half of our back yard is the lowest spot in the neighborhood.  After we put our sod in, the ground never dry out.  It's even hard to stand on.  For this situation, could you recommend me how we can mow the lawn?  Thank you.
Crystal

Answer
Hi Crystal;
I am so sorry you are having this trouble. Your first home is suposed to be all joy, not having a pall cast over it by a bad problem like this.
Don't mow it Hon, It isn't good for the grass to mow it wet, and will eventually probably kill it out. Also, if you are using an electric mower, edger etc, you could be electrocuted.
Best to just snow yourself into believing this is all what you wanted in the first place. Yeah, RIGHT!!
There is more than one way to remedy this, none of them easy or innexpensive.
It depends on how much lower your yard is than the rest, and whether or not you have an alleyway.
If it is just 2 to 4  inches lower, and there is an alley, or a street of some sort your back yard backs up to, you can dig a little ditch, a little deeper then the depth you have to correct, fill it with larger gravel.Dig one of these on each side of your yard, from where the lownes is to the street. If it is your whole yard, dig it from front to back. Put some kind of steel mesh at each end to hold the gravel in the ditch.I would make this ditch at least 12 or so inches wide.he water from the runoff of the other yards should drain into this ditch, and most of it flow out the ends.
Think about rain gutters on your roof. That is what you want to create on your yard.
Each spring, let the grass grow up to about 6 inches high, and bring in good sandy loam, and lay down about 2 inches of soil. Top dress it with some humus, or compost you have made, and water. As long as there are grass blades showing after you put down new soil, it will grow up through it. Actually, you will also be developing a good deep root system. This 2 inches you add will settle down, and add about 1 inch of height. You can do it more than once a year, if you have a long growing season. Here in North Texas, my grass greens up in early march and stays green till pretty late in november, so I can do the same thing in about 6 to 8 weeks, and it took me only about 3 years to get mine built up.
A faster remedy is to put a perimeter around your yard. You can probably can't get a concrete perimeter poured with the ground so wet, so I would use landscape timbers, or other wood perimeter material, or concrete blocks.Ypou can get blocks that are 2 inches hick. Buried lengthwise, 2 inches deep will still give a 6 inch perimeter. Have soil brought in and filled in.
You might look into renting a sod cutter to take up the sod, and replace it after the soil has been put in, or cover the sod you have now, and just re-sod over it. I think up in your area, there are grasses you can seed in  the fall, for spring growth. It will leave you with a dirt yard for the rest of this year, but you would save years of back breaking work.
If you can well afford to hire all this done, and don't want the "we did it ourselves, " satisfaction. I would hire a landscape company to do it, and go for a relaxing weekend to forget this nightmare.
When we bought this house, all we had was hard clay and weeds, with a little Burmuda struggling to grow.I didn't have a mud problem, because that clay won't let water through it. My husband tilled it up, and we tilled in a lot of bark mulch to loosen it up, and started the process of adding soil and pampering.Mu husband is a "hire someone to do it, and be done with it", but I am a "I will do it myself, come hell or high water"
So I did all that shoveling dirt, etc.
I have a friend who says she is older than dirt, well, I am older than my dirt, because I custom made every little bit of it. My lawn has about 12 inches of good, loose, rich top soil now, and I have a ruined back.LOL
We have been here 39 years, and there is not enough dynamite to get me out of this house.LOlIf you decide to do or die this project, keep in touch. I will help you in any way I can.
Tell me to problem, and I will look up what i don't know.
Charlotte
PS.
Duh, after writing al, this. I had a thought.
Forget the perimeter, your yard is already lower, so you are not going to lose the soil by it draining onto the other yards.
Just get soil, and mix it with Landscaper's mix or Planter's mix. About 2 parts good sandy loam to 1 part mix. these mixes have humus, peat moss and bark mulch in them, so you will end up with really good, loose soil. Put this soil mix as deep as you can, with grass blades still showing. The water in the soil now is going to keep the roots wet.Just water the soil enough to start it settling down. When the grass is showing really good and gets another 6 inches high, put down some more soil.
You don't have to mix this soil and mix before it is put down. Put down a couple inches of the soil you order, put down mix to half as deep as the soil you put down, and rake it back and forth to mix.
Check the quality of the soil you have now. If it is clay,it has to be loosened up. To loosen it some, put about 1/2 inch of peat mos on it before you put down the good soil. The peat moss will help the clay break up. If ou can find some granulated gypsum, put down an inch of this instead of the peat moss. It will seep down and loosen better than peat moss.
I don't think you have clay, or the soil would not be staying so wet.
Have I realy confused you?
I probably have. GEESH! it' s hard to keep a straight thought when you get this old.LOL.
If you have a lot of confusion after reading tis, write me again and tell me what part you are confused about, and I will clear that up.
You can do ot, Kid! Ain't no bad yard can whup a pure heart.LOL
Look at it his way, when you get this yard turned into an Eden, think of how much you will know about gardening.
Charlotte
 I left in all that confused mess, because not being able to see your yard for myself, some of that information is bound to fit at least some, and give you some base to start on.
Charlotte