I just realized that I posted this in the wrong location, as I am a homeowner. I was unable to delete this, so if anyone can tell me how, I will, as I plan on re-posting in the Homeowner section instead.

This is kind of a multi part question, but they are related. My wife and I purchased a house and end of the back yard sloped down into our neighbors yard, down about 10 feet, out about 20. We had someone come in and install two terraced retaining walls and regained about 10 feet of yard. We used ecology blocks (2'x2'x6' concrete blocks w/ a rebar handle) for the wall. The upper wall consists of 3 blocks of which one is completely buried leaving 4' above ground. They also leveled our yard (it was always fairly flat, but there was one section that quickly dropped off a few inches creating a, so a portion was lower than the other part of the yard), and graded it away from the house, and brought in several layers of top soil. We had no problems with mud or drainage before this happened, however now we have had alot of rain in the last several weeks, and our yard if very muddy. There was grass/weeds when we started, but now the flatter yard is just dirt, and we were going to replant grass in the spring. As I said, there was no water issues before, but now the yard is muddy. If you walk on it, you sink several inches, and your boots tend to stick into the ground.

My first question is will this likely be alleviated when we plant grass, as the grass will be absorbing the moisture, or should the yard be graded more than it is? As I said, it currently gently slopes away from the house, and the foundation stays dry, so no basement issues, just the yard being wet.

Secondly, when they installed the retaining wall, they only put a drain tile (drainage rock and a pipe) near the bottom of the wall. The put no drain rock between the wall and fill. The wall has begun to lean, and they are returning to fix this. My question is how is the best way to do this? I was going to have them add drain rock up the entire face of the rear of the wall to allow water to drain, and also slightly slope the blocks into the hill. Will this be adequate?

I am not sure if the drain rock behind the wall will work because the yard retains so much water currently. I have read about hydrostatic pressure, but is this caused from the water itself actually pressing against the wall, or from water saturated soil gaining mass, and putting more force against the wall? If the water is creating the force, the drain rock would seem to solve the problem, as it would all just drain away, but if it is just soil that retains water, I don't know how much the drain rock would help.

What is the ideal grade for a yard to facilitate drainage, but still be "flat" for usability? I have heard 1 foot drop for every 50' or run.

My yard is about 35' long, by 50' wide (50' retaining wall). Also, with the drain rock behind the wall, should the yard slope completely away from the house, w/ the highest part being the foundation, and the lowest part being the retaining wall, or will this cause retaining wall issues (it seems to me even if the wall is the lowest point of the yard, the drain rock behind it would create a place for all the water to drain)? The other option that I can think of would be to have the retaining wall and foundation both higher, creating a slight V shape in the middle of the yard, and drain off to the side, but I am concerned with how this will look. A continuous unnoticeable slope from the house to the wall seems the best aesthetically.

I'm not sure of the type of soil that I have, but I previously figured it had pretty good drainage because the yard never had water problems before, now I'm not so sure. Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to present all the info I could. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Richard