Can I ask how steep your slope is? and what conditions do you have? do you have a photo?
As no plant will stop the soil washing down for sometime., so have you considered turfing or terracing it for a quicker fix? You can remove bits of turf as you plant and as the plants grow.
Have you decided if you want low ground cover such as Golden St. John’s wort (Hypericum fron­dosum ‘Sunburst’ or more dramatic looks such as shrubs like Gold Tide™ dwarf forsythia (Forsythia ‘Courtasol’.

Many thanks Drc726. The slope is about 8 feet I would say, and has a retaining (although it isn't at the moment) wall. Unfortunately the new top soil just flowed straight down from the top to the bottom and off the wall. We have planted a few shrubs but at the moment they are quite small and so there's still quite a bit of soil left around, exposed to the elements. I think I may try your good idea of the turf, which in actual fact we removed some to make the border sections larger to accommodate lots of shrubs. It seemed like really good idea at the time!!

You've been very helpful, I will be on the slope at the weekend, with a magic wand, as well as my spade!!

Thanks once again.

Good luck with the weather then Loola.

Also when you plant your shrubs try to make a little level place for them(nothing much, a foot or even less will help depending on the size of the shrub) or even slope it back a bit, perhaps with a large piece of slate of stone in front to stop soil washing away. This should help until the roots get established.

Thank you Steragram. I will do that, and have got some large stones that will do the job quite nicely. Last night the heavens opened again and so the very same happened, however I shall work on it at the weekend.

Isn't this a wonderful website!!

Your help is very much appreciated.

id do as said and put grass seed down as a tempery measure if you want to keep the slope .

It certainly is Lola. Hope the weather stays fine for you this weekend.

be posative stera its going to be lovley xx .

Many thanks to you all for your ideas. I'll place some large stones strategically where the top soil seems to be running off and hope that holds it in place. Thanks too for the grass suggestion. There's already a little turf around as we'd actually taken most of it up to create larger areas for shrubs - now I know why there was lawn there. We live and learn don't we. Thank you once again. I will endeavour to get some photos on the site and then you can see what we're up against.

Thanks loola, the photos would be interesting.

your welcome . all for one and one for all thow its more like a few thousand gardening muskatears rather than 3 + 1 lol xx .

Hope you're right about the weekend NP _ I shall blame you now if it rains!

ok lol ofcourse it will be fine lol xx .

Thanks to you all for handy hints and tips. I will be popping to a nursery this weekend to get some low growing roses and perhaps a few more evergreen shrubs. Work in progress!!!

your welcome .