The road to the left is an easement for the neighbors, the street is to the right. The block is wet from our 6" rainfall in 3 days..but yes, there is quite the flow when there is a downpour. The yard rises up at a steep angle on the left so it will be hard to redirect the flow....it mainly comes from the top of the yard through the grass. I just don't want the dirt to runoff anymore and would like to plant something there after I take care of the water. There is alot of root and I plan on throwing some topping down but needless to say after the water prob is fixed.

Your success will depend on the texture of the soil. Some soils liquify will saturated and will not be controlled with the plants suggested. My soil will not erode no matter how steep or how wet. When we bought this property 15 years ago I was concerned after having cleared the slope of a heavy juniper growth and planted it in coyote brush. I could have left it bare and not have erosion. Look at road cuts in your area and get an idea of how easy the local soil slips from a new cut. Al

Thanks all for the suggestions! I probably should have explained better in the first place. House is up on a naturally forming slope, with the asphalt driveway rising steeply to meet in. After the snow melted, we noticed that what had been shallow-rooted grass off to the side driveway apex was now about an inch lower, bald, rocky, and pocked with ridges from the water runoff. This area extends ~1-2 feet horizontally before dropping down ~4 feet at a ~45 degree angle. Our idea had been to cut a "L" in the side of the slope, reinforce the earthen backstop with a small rock wall, and level the top area with soil, in effect creating a bit of a terrace for the slope to slow down what we worried might erode more in the coming years (which could eat away the earthen support under the asphalt in our paranoid minds). In the soil up top (we would supplement the dry, rocky, clay) we hoped to plant something pretty-- enough to bring color and foliage most of the year and anchor the top soil a bit. As it was to be to the side of the drive, we were hoping for something with a little vertical height, which might act as a natural flag during winter (as we learned the hard way this year, when the hired plowman drove off the driveway and over a small cobblestone ringed flowerbed buried under the snow). We saw heather at a nursery the prior weekend and thought it looked pretty, offered a little height, and might look nice on a hillside here and also in another part of the yard. Thanks again and hope the description was more helpful (sorry--- haven't figured out how to post pics yet)

A photo would be helpful. If you have an effective groundcover, and around here there are a bunch of ferns that work well as groundcover, adding some new perennials, shrubs or small trees inset into the ferns to add interest might work better than changing out something that is working to control erosion along the water. Getting new plantings established on a slope can be difficult when one considers weed control and erosion during the time something is getting established, and many plants aren’t happy on a slope or won’t provide effective control for erosion and slippage. There are also rules that effect what you can do along public waterways because your erosion issues can effect water quality for everyone along the same waterway. So be sure to research how those laws effect what you can do since fines can be steep and you might be required to return everything to its prior condition. Or hire a designer who is well versed in the legal aspects of design along shorelines.