Establishing vegetation will help more than the mulch to hold the soil. You can make your own "French Drain" to keep water away from the house. If the slope is only a few feet tall it won't be too much of a problem. If it is a 20 foot rise you need to be more proactive in dealing with it. You can place large rocks at the toe of the slope to get a little bit of retention.

The shrubs growing on the slope look that they have been there quite a while and seem to be growing straight up. (Sometimes, if there is a bend like an old-fashioned walking stick handle in the stem near to the ground, that bend can indicate that the land is slumping.)

About the tree roots showing: there's not a great deal of topsoil from what I could see so the roots have probably spread out to forage for food and water. A number of tree species have suface roots - some quite gnarled and obvious. Think swamp cypress for a start. Unless the trees are very tall and your local prevailing winds are fierce or unpredictable you aren't likely to get windthrow.

On a slope such as yours I'd be looking for grooves cut by runoff from the top as the precursor to shallow gullying - and that didn't seem to be happening.

Personally, I wouldn't spend on 'posh plants' for such a slope. I'd ask for 'pioneer-type' shrubs - preferably native to your area. If you have a native plants nursery near you - pick their brains. Grasses, creepers, low-nutrient environment shrubs and sub-shrubs. That soil is obviously not rich - it hasn't been colonised by much at all.

If you need clues and there are cuttings at the sides of your roads check there for what will establish and thrive and stay seemly. (No one needs a slope covered in fire risk weeds!)

When you visit with the plant place/s ask for SPECIFIC guidance on how to plant up a steep slope. If it has a high clay content - let them know because it will change what they will advise.

If there is any better soil available on your lot, and you can spare some - mix it in with the slope soil when planting but don't bother putting in fine compost. All that happens is the plants grow out to the limits of the top grade environment and then either sulk or die.

Think about buying your reveg plants in 'root trainer' tubes rather than big cans or baggies. They'll be younger and better equipped to strike out, rootwise.

Hear you when you say you're budget-constrained. See if you can legally collect native seedlings of suitable plants, grow them on, then plant out. Sometimes a neighbour can be a good source. Under the bird feeder, in a garden, can be another - but expect a lot of berry-producing plants ;-)

And, as the slope is a bit of a challenge - could you devise a ladder to get you upslope for planting? Or a scaffoldiong arrangement. Something with wide enough treads so you don't end up with anguished feet!

Vetivert8 makes a good point about the ladder. A friend taught me to lay a ladder flat against a steep slope when working and it was much better than trying to play mountain goat.

I have a similar issue although my slope goes down instead of up. Here's what I've learned from my research on erosion:

First, plants are better than anything else to hold back a slope. Bare slopes erode quickly, and planted slopes erode very slowly. Slopes planted with natives erode slowest of all, by the way.

Second, use a variety of plants--some ground covers, some shrubs, even some small trees if you feel like it. Planting an entire slope with one kind of plant is a mistake. Try to choose plants with deep root systems. You don't say where you live, but Google "erosion control plants" and you'll get a lot of suggestions.

Third, as vetivert says, find really tough plants. You're going to plant them, water them a few times, and then they're going to have to fend for themselves. If it doesn't survive without your help, it wasn't a good choice anyhow. Choosing plants that spread or reseed is a good idea, but be careful not to plant anything invasive. Again, as vetivert says, it's harder to go wrong if you stick with natives. Often this means buying by mail order, because local nurseries often don't stock native plants. Sometimes this is a great opportunity, as there are lots of plants that require perfect drainage to survive, and flatlanders won't be able to plant them.

Fourth, plant one area at a time, and all at once. A lot of digging and marching around on the slope encourages erosion. Fall planting is usually a good idea; if you're in an area that frosts, plants will have a chance to establish themselves before winter; if you're in an area with wet winters, the rains will do a lot of your watering for you.

Fifth, plant small. It's a lot easier to plant a four-inch seedling or a gallon container on a slope, and it disturbs far less soil. Surprisingly, these smaller plants are more likely to survive.

Hope this helps!

We are struggling with our own big slope. I agree that natives are your best bet. You want something that can handle drought, although any new plant will require watering its first summer.

So far we've planted some serviceberry, chokeberry, and a small redbud (the redbud is at the top where the slope isn't too steep and we can water it). The serviceberries might need watering when the weather is dry, but that's easy to do with a hose.

So those are our big plants. Then we planted Little Bluestem, some Switchgrass (both native ornamentals), black-eyed susans and purple coneflowers. The prairie plants don't mind poor soil (which is usually the case on a slope) and will tolerate dry summers.

We also put in some creeping phlox (phlox subulata). I'm having mixed results with that. It seems to be thriving near the bottom of the hill where it gets overwashed with silt, and not doing so well at the top. I just partly buried some at the top, to mimic what is happening naturally at the bottom, and it seems to be doing better.

So far I would say I am most impressed with the black-eyed susans and the little bluestem. Both are not only surviving but thriving. I separated a one-gallon pot of black-eyed susans into six plants in early summer, and now they are over a foot tall and each have at least a dozen flowers. The rocky, steep ground seems to be no problem. And the little bluestem, from what I've heard, has very deep roots and is excellent for erosion control. It is a bit of a slow grower compared to other (non-native) ornamentals, but it is truly a beautiful color: deep blue-green shot through with purple and bright blue.

I'm in the Northeast too, zone 5, so I think anything I mentioned should manage where you are. Most of the soil here is clay, but ours is so rocky that it doesn't turn into cement like a lot of clay soil does.

recently we redid our landscaping and instead of a retaining wall we planted and mulched the hill. it has been three years and except for weeds and mulching and filling in with more plants, we have had no real trouble with water erosion. The landscaper put in rocks where the swai is and it seemed to have helped the water flow. In the pas few weeks , April-May 2014 there has been heavy rains and my slope has been torn down to the bare soil with much coming all the way down again, we mulched again and again. By the way, my neighbor behind the fence, w have a 6 footer cut many of his trees down and could be that too. Help is needed. Thanks

Hi, we have the same problem. I took a drive around to see what the local council has planted and discussed a few things with the local nursery, Royal mantle is a great solution. On another hill I have a landscaper suggested chain link fencing laid down (old stuff from local tip) as the water will run underneath, mulch will stay on top and you plant among the hole or cut links out. miniature grasses, those roots are buggers when you try to pull them out but they clump up then you can split them and spread more out. Hope this helps.

Please don't listen to the advice of anyone on this post. Unless they are an expert and have been to your house. Comments like Melissa's about "Don't worry" about your slope because she herself was able to resolve her own problems make no sense at all….sorry Melissa but do you know if you have the same soil type as Teraleigh?, how about the steepness of the slope, or the direction of the slope relevant to the prevailing weather, or the amount of average rainfall, or the presence of rodents and other critters, or the types of plants that will grow there. All of these things significantly affect the ability to retain and the method to use to retain any hillside. And it's very possible that Teraleigh's property could be a catastrophe waiting to happen or extremely stable for the next millennia with no effort at all. You just can't tell from here.