On Sep 2, 3:32*pm, Ohioguy wrote:
have roundish/smoothish stones, which barely stay put even on level
ground. You might do better with the kind of gravel they use for roads,
which is much more angular; the pieces lock together and stay put.

* *No, they are large, rough stones similar to driveway stones, but
bigger and a little whiter. *I'd say on average they are about 3" to 4"
across. *They don't tumble particularly easily, but the slope is such
that if you remove what is underneath the one above, they tumble.

* *I like the idea that some of you had about pavers & such. *One of my
friends had the idea of putting in additional landscape timbers, but
that wouldn't have looked so good. (unless perhaps painted to match the
stone, I guess)

* *I could probably use some long concrete sections, which would be a
similar color to the stone. *That would help hold the rocks a lot.

You have two issues that are contributing to the problem. The first
is obvious, the slope. Not so obvious is the landscape fabric that
you indicated was installed. Both contribute to helping the stones
dislodge and move.

The first thing I would try is to soak the area until the soil becomes
very soft and then try to place the rocks where you want them and tamp
them into the wet soil. This may not work too well because of the
landscape fabric which will tend to pull out previously done areas as
you move from one spot to another. You may need to work back and
forth a couple of times to set the stones in place. Hopefully, after
it dries out the stones will find their own indentation to hang onto.

If this doesn't work, and it may not because of the landscape fabric,
the best choice would be rows of larger stones or pavers set deeper
into the soil to hold the rocks in place. Even this should be
followed by the tap them down approach.