Question
My climate zone is 2A.
My property and the neighbouring ones on my street all have a gentle slope that drains into city property bordering a roadway.
My backyard is lower than the ones on either side. After heavy rains, the water from both houses drains into my yard.
A couple years ago I thought I had fixed the problem by building up the soil level. This Spring year has been one of the wettest on records and the water problem is back but not as bad.
I dont feel like adding more soil again. To do this before I had to remove part of the fence. I have since built a new fence, and my wife has added some nice flower beds and garden.
Last week I hand dug a trench along each neighbours fence to the lowest point at my back fence. About 3' wide by 20' long.
This has worked well, and my kids love playing boats in the water.I dont like the idea of standing water, so need some ideas for landscaping these trenches.
My thoughts are to rake grass and leaves into the trenches until it builds up,hopefully still able to drain, or can I plant something in there?
Thanks for any thoughts!

Answer
Hi Gord, If you want to fill the ditches, I'd first lay a 6' wide piece of landscape fabric in the ditch to prevent soil from eroding back in.  Then I'd lay  2 or 3 - 4" perforated drain pipes and then fill the ditches with coarse gravel. Fold the excess fabric back over the top and cover any gap with more fabric, then put a layer of gravel on top.  Your drain pipes are enclosed and protected from debris collecting between the rocks and you should never need to do anything again.  
If you want to leave them open, plant along the outside with any hardy shrub that will cover it and you'll just need to occasionally clean them out.  If water stands in them for more than a few hours after a rain, you should extend them to the lowest natural runoff site.  I'd lay an underground drain if a surface ditch is not acceptable.  Jim