I like the straw or wood shaving blankets with plastic mesh. Have done a few of my own and helped an excavator friend many times putting them down. Round headed pins pushed in with a magnet on a stick are the easy way to pin them down. Usually seeded in August to get the best stand. If you are doing lots of waterways or plan to buy /make/borrow a un-roller for behind an ATV you can unroll a lot of material very fast and very accurately without a lot of wrinkles and hand pulling to get lined up. Kicking a large roll to unroll it gets it going crooked especially on any sort of slope which means you have to pull from the edge along a good portion of it to get it in place and try to get it smooth. The unroller minimizes all this a bunch. Makes handling the larger rolls a breeze as well.

http://strawblanket.com/prod02.php

Agree it is very aggravating to get waterway worked like you want it then get a huge rain . Generally does not happen late summer so it's a good time to seed. The plastic mesh and cover in the blanket material helps the grass get hold and stay in place once it grows through it.

Some previous threads where I replied with more pics and info.

https://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=496162

https://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=588955

https://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=467083

https://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=265131