I spent this weekend re-planting bushes in the landscaping bed in the front of my house in NC. As part of this, I created a trench on the border of the bed (new construction, the builder had just left the sod and the landscaping bed level, so mulch washed out into the yard after any rain). This evening, I noticed that water had pooled in some of the trenched areas - some areas minor, but some significant (the worst area is the trench on a down slope). When removing some bushes, I noticed that the holes I pulled them out of had quite a bit of water in them, and the clay soil was quite wet.

My thought was that I unintentionally created moats with these trenches, given that the clay soil is quite compact and doesn’t drain very well. Is there any way to rectify this situation?