Saving a Swampy Corner of My Garden

Hello,

I'm going into the third year with my garden here in Ithaca, NY, and I've got a serious issue I need to deal with -- one corner of the garden floods.

I started the first year with a plot about 9 feet wide and 18 feet long, and everything went swimmingly. Roto-tilled in peat moss and compost. The next year I extended the plot by about 5 feet (now 14x18), roto-tilled in peat moss and compost. There is a slope to the plot, but it didn't affect the lower end of the original plot. Unfortunately, the new corner floods -- I can get four or five inches of standing water there. if I didn't plant my favorite heirloom tomatoes in that very corner. Still managed to get a small yield. Spent a lot of last year's rainy summer bailing it out.

This year I want to fix things. I'm planning to redistribute the soil around the garden a little to build up that end, but there's not that much soil I want to move. I'm thinking of other ideas -- but need the solution to be cheap, or free. Here's what I know I have at my disposal:

My own compost, although there isn't much, or enough, of it
I have heard there is a huge pile of rotting horse manure on one of the Cornell equestrian lots that people available for public taking
Compost is available from the City of Ithaca, what I think is a pile of the brush they clear each year and let decompose. It is also free.

My question is, what is the best way to build up that end of the garden that won't damage the soil by being too rich? If, say, I get compost from the City, should I mix it with peat moss and the existing soil as far down as I can dig? Or is there another way to raise the soil height that I'm not thinking of?

Any advice or thoughts are greatly appreciated!

I would build a raised bed around or next to a dug out bog area so the plants you want are in the raised bed and the wet area is a natural bog with say Venus Fly traps. Look at Equils wet land fixes. I'll look for that thread.

I would plant plants like like wet feet... joepyeweed comes to mind. :-)

If you do a web search for rain garden, there is tons of information including lists of plants that like wet feet.

Cardinal flower (great for hummingbirds) is one, Swamp milkweed (great for butterflies) is another.