How to keep water flowing properly in your yard — and away from your basement

Some soils are well-drained, such as the one around my house here in central New Hampshire. The typical soils here are thin and sandy, a result of the erosion of the granite bedrock. However, the soil in Cincinnati, my hometown, is the opposite. There’s thin topsoil, and under it are 2 to 20 feet of dense clay that you could use to make pottery. Water doesn’t travel down through the clay at all. This is why it’s easy to build a pond in southwest Ohio.