One of the best ways to deal with a low wet area, if you have the space, is to plant a weeping, or gold bark willow tree. Also available are corkscrew willows for those who do not have the usual width needed for the weeping varieties. The crokscrew will grow much more upright with branches that spiral to the sky, giving them their common name. These trees are the first to leaf out in the spring and the last to drop in the fall with the exception of pin oaks, which hold their browned out leaves through most of the winter, unless storms are accompanied with severe winds.
The willow trees love to grow fast to 75' sometimes in as little as ten years, provided their is enough sun and water and nutrients to support the growth. The best use for this tree aside from it's beautiful shape and fine delicate leaves, which all but disintegrate when they drop in the fall and gray out, leaving very little clean up, and some food resources for the next season, is their ability to dry up a wet low area of the yard. They can grow in a variety of soil conditions and do well sitting in water, but this is not required to enjoy the graceful branches swaying in the breezes as well as the rather unique sound created by the fluttering of the leaves, many a child who grew up in a yard with such a willow, will recall that particular sound while reading a book in the shade of the tree as a child, and to hear it again today is brought back to a fond memory, not many trees have such character!

Happy Gardening!
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