An artificial root system for gabions to control soil erosion has an anchor which has a nose cone threadable onto a threaded rod and deployable stainless steel blades. On deployment of one or more anchors on each of a series of rods, connectors are attached to the rods. These connectors have four couplers to receive the ends of threaded rods or bars, and a central coupler to receive one (passing through) or two (meeting) threaded rods or bars. Threaded cross bars or rods are attached to the connectors to form a framework to support geotextiles attached to the cross bars or rods to form a gabion, or gabion array. The gabions are then filled with suitable material, to repair, or replace eroded shoreline, river frontage, lake frontage, etc.