Design Ideas for Mushy Ground

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Does anyone have any suggestions for an inexpensive way to cover this swampy, mushy area? We are planning on putting a porch swing on a frame, all wooden, in this spot.
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Unfortunately, we don’t really have another place to put the swing.
 

j.w

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Looks like you would have to bring in fill dirt to raise it up some. Then maybe add woodchips or bark on top of that. Could even put patio blocks on top of that too so you don't have to mow that area. A lot of work any way you look at it tho.

Wonder if you could dig a trench like a small stream filled w/rock or gravel to divert the excess water to?
 
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We would love to use patio blocks, but that’s going to get really expensive really fast. We thought about maybe putting in gravel with larger stepping stones here and there. We’re afraid to do gravel though and have it sink in. I would if mulch is better than gravel.
 

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At least if you try the mulch or wood chips you won't have a bunch of sinking gravel and if the mulch works then maybe you could put the gravel and stepping stones in after a year or so of testing.
 
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Hmmm, swampy mushy ground sounds like there is ground water there. Maybe a French drain to move the water away from this area and then put additional dirt over it. I had a similar area that never dried out. Dug two trenches, dropped in some corrugated pipe with holes in it that is designed for French drains ( has a fiber cloth around it with styrofoam balls to keep dirt from filling the pipe) filled the trench with gravel and then put dirt over it. Luckily I had a storm drain in another part of the yard I could run the French drain to. Fixed the problem and now have a nice dry, grassy, flat spot.
 

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I really like the rain garden idea. Find some wet ground loving plants like what works in bogs and plant away. Iris, lizard tail, swamp milkweed. You will attract a lot of wildlife and it would be a great relaxation area.
 
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Does anyone have any suggestions for an inexpensive way to cover this swampy, mushy area? We are planning on putting a porch swing on a frame, all wooden, in this spot.

A deck made out of used wood pallets can be inexpensive if you can find a local place that is getting rid of any. You can set them up on some bricks instead of expensive concrete footings (you can usually find bricks going cheap or free on Freecycle.org with a little patience). You can also use logs cut from a decent size tree (at least 1' wide) as footings
https://hoosierhomemade.com/how-to-build-a-wood-pallet-deck/
https://www.thespruce.com/find-free-pallets-easily-with-these-tips-1357101
https://www.freecycle.org/

You can also just use flat cut logs to make a pathway or deck. This works well for boggy areas so long as the logs are buried deep enough not to sink and the ground isn't boggy deeper down. All you need is a tree big enough to result in enough logs of a usable size and a chainsaw, which you can rent at any heavy equipment rental place or even Home Depot.
 

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Since it is pretty close to your pond, you may want to add some activated carbon made for aquariums to your filter to deal with tannins from the tree logs if you do the full buried log deck in the photo I attached.
 
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From what i can see there's other areas for a swing.. it may not be your first choice but.. i'd work with the wet area and not try to work against it . make it a bentonite pond scrape back some of the top soil around the area to deepen it place some wetland species or tropical plants in youll never have to water
 

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