Every wet yard we look at comes down to the same two questions: where is the water coming from, and where can it go? Until you can answer both, no amount of gravel or pipe will fix the problem.
The most common source on Carroll County lots is roof water. A single downspout can dump hundreds of gallons in a storm right next to the foundation. Burying the downspouts and running them to a pop-up emitter or dry well away from the house solves more wet basements than anything else we do, and it's one of the cheapest fixes.
The next culprit is grade. Newer subdivisions are often graded so the lawn tilts back toward the house or dead-flat toward a fence line where the water just sits. Regrading a strip along the foundation, or the whole back yard, gets the water moving again.
When the water is coming through the soil rather than across it, a French drain does the job: a trench with a perforated pipe in clean stone, wrapped in fabric, sloped to an exit. Across driveways and patios, a channel drain catches the sheet flow. And on a big property, a dry creek bed of river rock can carry runoff across the yard and look good doing it.
The key to all of these is the exit. Water has to end up somewhere lower than where it started, and that somewhere has to be a place you're allowed to send it. That's what we work out on the walkthrough, ideally right after a rain, when the problem is easy to see.