Well plants and leaves can definitely help with this. If you’re in the US, your state DNR may have resources on which plants are most effective for this in your area and site conditions.
Also, if you are getting a lot of runoff from upslope, you might need to investigate whether changes are needed at the source of this runoff rather than in the immediate area of erosion. If you can slow that upslope water and allow it to absorb in the soil up there, that can help a lot even without changing anything lower down.
You could always use native grasses and plants. There’s nothing inherently wrong with grass, but it’s important to have grasses that make sense within your ecological context. Using a bunch of non-native grasses may help for soil retention on your hill, but native grasses would do the same thing – arguably better since you can use ones with root systems that grow deeper into the soil and they’re more drought tolerant – and they’d be multipurpose (food, cover, nest materials, etc.) for native animal species. They’re often prettier and more colorful during the various seasons and take fewer resources to maintain once established.
Too many leaves will definitely kill the grass.
Whether that’s a bad thing is a separate question.
#killyourlawn
I need something to prevent the soil from eroding when it rains.
Well plants and leaves can definitely help with this. If you’re in the US, your state DNR may have resources on which plants are most effective for this in your area and site conditions.
Also, if you are getting a lot of runoff from upslope, you might need to investigate whether changes are needed at the source of this runoff rather than in the immediate area of erosion. If you can slow that upslope water and allow it to absorb in the soil up there, that can help a lot even without changing anything lower down.
Well, my backyard is a hill.
You could always use native grasses and plants. There’s nothing inherently wrong with grass, but it’s important to have grasses that make sense within your ecological context. Using a bunch of non-native grasses may help for soil retention on your hill, but native grasses would do the same thing – arguably better since you can use ones with root systems that grow deeper into the soil and they’re more drought tolerant – and they’d be multipurpose (food, cover, nest materials, etc.) for native animal species. They’re often prettier and more colorful during the various seasons and take fewer resources to maintain once established.