I'm working on stabilizing a few very steep very wet slopes on my property. You'll want to look into evergreens, as we get most of our rain in the winter and dormant plants don't pull nearly as much water out of the ground as evergreens do. Personally I prefer the look of broadleaf evergreens, but the needly ones work fine too. I have established rhododendrons on site which have done a brilliant job of holding the ground in place, as has the lonicera nitida, but they're both too tall for the areas I'm planting. Western red cedar is brilliant, but I'm guessing you don't want 100' trees in front of your house.

I've put in evergreen azaleas and dwarf box so far. Sword fern are good at pulling water out and evergreen, but don't seem to root as widely as the shrubs. They're nice for infill though. And daylilies are dormant in winter but the roots seem to hold the soil in place really well, even when the plants aren't showing. Oh, and the prostrate rosemary I put in last year looks so far to be doing a good job.

I have a lot of hillside to stabilize, so I'm still looking around for more options. But hopefully those will help get you started. For really wet slopes it helps to contour plant, too. I use this method to find my contours: http://teca.fao.org/read/7717 I use shrubs instead of grasses along the contour lines, though.

My health isn't always brilliant, but I just take it a bit at a time. I figure I'll get there eventually. Good luck!

I'd recommend two websites as places to start your planning. One is the the Washington State Department of Ecology page on slope stabilization (www.ecy.wa.gov/Programs/sea/pubs/93-30/index.htm). It's written for coastal property owners, but most of the info would be quite applicable to your situation too. I'd also suggest looking at the Greenbelt Consulting website (www.greenbeltconsulting.com). He is based in Whidby Island, so he's quite familiar with our wet and dry cycles. The website has a lot of information about what to plant to control slides and erosion. One of the major points he makes is to use a mix of plants (trees, shrubs, ferns, etc). If everything has the same root depth, you just establish a plane to slide away the next time conditions are ripe. Good luck!