[jshilan]

First of all, and most importantly - does your property have to be below your neighbors property? Can you build up your grade and / or patio so water runs away from your house but does not build up around the perimeter of the property (without forcing you to build up the grade on the house itself).

Next, the walls seem like they are just going to "dam" the water even more, and depending on where you live, can actually push the water back up towards the house, or even into it if the weather is severe enough.

If your grade is truly lower than all of the surrounding properties you need to not only "catch" the water but run it into a seepage tank or recharge tank. If this is the case, I would divert the water away from the planter walls (just like the house) and try to grade the property so the water goes to a more centrally located catch basin that then runs into a seepage tank.

Water management is really pretty easy. Water runs down hill and always seeks its level. 90% of the drainage problems I run into are either due to improper grading or some self inflicted situation like building a berm or other obstruction directly in the way of the natural flow of water.

If you can, shoot a few spot elevations to see what is really going on elevation-wise and then rethink the design before you potentially make things worse.

If you can post some pictures, I'm sure you can get some other solutions too.