Just lay the fence on the ground, deer wont walk on it !
If you roll out a roll on each side, you can go down a row, then roll it back up to do dirt work. Or cut 10 ft sections and lay on either side. hate to cut it if you dont have too tho. Can use cheap field fence wire for this, and save money for a chain link, (ask around the school district yards, they had to raise the heights 10 yrs ago....).
I would still plan on putting up a 6 ft chain link, but wait till you can trench down a foot, pour a footer, and set the pipe in front of it. This will be required to keep out the javalina, skunks, and rats.
Electric wire at the top will keep out racoons, and usually
bear.
Don't plant mint under trees, it mats up, and wont let water or nutrients thru. Comfrey adds some nutrients, opens the soil, and degrades well. It is also completely non-removable, and will spread if you ever dig it. I wouldn't plant it, unless it is full shade, and you will have trouble getting anything else to grow.
Look around for some desert nitrogen fixers, that don't grow too tall, or just put in lambsquarter, and chop and drop a couple times a year.
we have a spreading ground cover, no idea what it is, looks like caltrop/goatshead, but no stickers, and wider leafs. You just need something that keeps the soil open by punching down roots.
Use mint out at the boundries, to keep out other weeds from competition, and
moles and voles won't tunnel thru under it.
edit:
Garlic / onions are ok, but they suck sulphur out of the soil, so dont harvest em, you have to cut and drop em to recycle the sulphur.
Best thing you can do for trees, is bury
wood down at least 2 foot below root ball, or at least 3-4 ft total. out around the center is best. leave a channel of rocks to the surface, to get water down to the wood.
Best seeds for the desert are from Native Seed Search in Tucson.
http://www.nativeseeds.org/
Groundcovers
http://70.47.99.86/contactus.asp
also for ID
http://cabezaprieta.org/plant_identification.php
The other things i would do right away.
Get a el cheapo laser level, one with a tripod mount on the bottom. In the evening , you can go out and see which way the water will actually flow on the lot.
Helps to decide where to grade in swales for rain catching too. If you are going to build stuff, then start trying to bid on a Gizmo on ebay, so you can do vertical stuff, and cabinets later.
Read up on Belgian Fence.
You can plant cheap Autumn Berry, or Buffalo Berry, and train it with VERY little water in the desert. Then plan on in-filling with wine grapes later. Do it out where you can put up a 3 wire fence later.
Espalier is fabulous for breaking up the properties areas.
