If part of your yard stays wet for days after a storm, the water isn't the problem — the lack of anywhere for it to go is.
Start with the downspouts. A roof sheds a surprising volume of water, and a downspout that dumps right at the foundation sends all of it into the soil against your basement wall. Burying that line and carrying it out to daylight fixes more wet basements than anything else we do.
Next is grade. Ground should fall away from the house — a few inches over the first several feet. Over the years, settling and mulch piled against the foundation quietly reverse that slope and send water back toward the wall.
For low spots that collect water out in the yard, a French drain works well: a trench of washed stone with perforated pipe in it, wrapped in filter fabric, sloped toward an outlet. The fabric is what keeps it working — without it, silt fills the stone and the drain dies in a few seasons.
Where water sheets across a driveway or patio, a channel drain or catch basin intercepts it before it reaches the garage.
Every property drains a little differently. We'd rather walk it after a rain and see where the water actually goes than guess from a dry yard.