Rainwater Management

I'm placing these videos here so I can go back and reference them. We had quite a few torrential downpours this spring - wonderful for the plants, but as I watched the torrents sweep across my yard, I wondered whether I can do something to manage the rain flow a little better. Here are images from the front yard.
The water sweeps down the slope from my neighbors' property, floods the little gravel path I created and creates a puddle on our walkway. I'm thinking I could dig out the garden on the left side of the picture, build a small swale to encourage water to drain off the sidewalk. This is one summer project I plan to attempt. 

In the backyard, this is the scene. The gutters are not very effective (they might need to be cleaned out as well). But they just haven't seemed to work well since they were installed. So, right next the house we get a giant puddle. Again, I'm thinking I could dig out a swale to carry water away from the house, and down toward the side garden by the fence.  

Spring Happenings

This spring has been fantastic. We ordered 6 cubic yards of mulch. When it's delivered, it doesn't really look like much, but once you start to shovel it around the garden, it becomes the never-ending pile.

I added mulch to the whole side of the yard and in the back among the wax myrtles. I've started adding some to the front yard herb garden, and I need to bring more of it to the front. The fight against encroaching grass and weeds never ends.

I have a new project in mind. Here are the before photos:

You can see the downspout from the gutter on the left, just behind the AC unit. We get a ton of water in this area, and it sits and floods. I'm going to install a dry creek bed from the downspout, connecting to the screen door on the right (our gutters weren't installed very well - we need to get that fixed, but currently we get run off from the roof there). and down along the garden bed next to the porch, culminating at the end of the porch. I hope I do this right! It's going to be a lot of labor.