If you are thinking of a veggie garden think you might need drainage but I know nothing about how to do that,hopefully someone else will.I do have an indented wet area in my yard that is full of blue and yellow flag iris and looks gorgeous when in bloom.Sometimes after heavy snow melt or rain it kinda looks like a pond.Maybe you could build yours up with topsoil and plant with stuff that actually likes wet feet.

We had a similar thing with our garden after a rain. We dug a trench down one side, about 8" deep, and that helps drain away the water. Does the water cover the whole area? If not, then why not put in a bog garden?

I would love to have a bog garden! Try searching google for bog garden and you'll get lots of wonderful ideas. At least if you are flexible and don't have particular plants in mind that you just really really want to have!

should you go the "bog garden" route, don't forget the joe-pye-weed. big plant, even tho i have the compact one. maybe 3ft at base and 6ft at the top. love it, and so do the butterflies!

We had a similar problem, and we figured since it wanted to be a pond - let it be a pond! We dug it deeper, and now have a lovely pond that attracts ducks, turtles, and the occasional Sandhill crane. Even a tiny pond/bog would be pretty, and you could then put your non-bog plants in a garden around it.

I have the same issue and am working on it too. If you hit on a great method, I would love to know! Ponding it isn't an option for me, even though I had a pair of ducks paddling about a few weeks ago..LOL

Mine is a large city lot, with heavy clay soil. Two neighbors graded their lots with drainage toward mine (decades ago). When it rains it turns the corner of my yard in to a big giant puddle. It takes days to dry out leaving a squishy mess fit only for weeds. With the loss of the only tree in that area of the yard, it is bound to get worse.

I added a layer of black dirt last year, but it didn't make a huge dent. This year, the chips from the stump grinding of the pine tree that pulled up due to the wetness and wind,are being added in to try to lighten the soil. Today I planted a butterfly bush and baby joe pye weed to see if they would grow. It needs something to break up the clay and be able to tolerate wetness in the spring, but hot full sun in the summer. I am trying to figure out what else to plant that might help do this. Any ideas?

Liz321: we had a similar situation. We dug a trench from the fence into the garden and that's where the excess water went (my garden was along the fenceline). Later I even considered putting in a small pond, our lot wasn't big so it had to be small, for the water to run into. It was planned for the birds, bog iris etc. Unfortunately, we moved before I could do it.