Now, I'm off to another affected area. This area is an area that at some point in natural time, did actually get this flow. But, allowing it to go this way puts it too close to aligning with problems with the house. So it is redirected around it now..
The area at the top of the Shade Garden was a scoured region, and we wanted to level it up, now that I've got my Main Fork in place.
Down lower in the yard, nearer the house, there has been an area where the stream would run towards the house. They tried to cut ditches and stuff (I'm finding out in archaeological fashion).
At any rate, they had made some attempts at fending the season flow back, but were amateurish at best. They did work, but presented other problems.
What it did do, was to trap water in the immediate area around the house; water that was generated by rain in that immediate area; roof offload, and immediate surrounding area. They just let the rain gutter flow into a puddle, and then allowed it to soak in.
Wrong approach!
Get the water away from the foundation; most critical.
So I dug a drainage trench across the rear of the house, and lined it with 4" perforated pipe, and trench lining, and backfilled with gravel to create a drain across the rear of the house, about 4' out from the house.
It needed to daylight at some point, which is where our building pad started to elevate from the natural terrain.
I put the outflow from a rainwater into this same drainage pipe, and have directed the outflow into this diffuser and birdbath, that i made to emulate a mountain stream, with step pools.
Here is a video of the not yet finished rain gutter mountain stream, actually sounding a bit like a stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HLdgBxfo5Q