Hannah Lichty

Hawthorn is another good option for grafting. That's what people use around here. If it grows wild where you live, I'd try it.

We use juniper and chestnut posts around here. They take a long time to break down.

I thought you might like to see a Corsican solution to your problem. That post in the foreground is granite. I saw whole fields fenced with dozens of these things. I can't imagine the work that went into making them, but I suppose it's a pretty long term solution.

Corsica fencepost

We have some very vigilant dogs, so I don't have a lot of trouble with deer but my neighbor does. Over the years she's created a very wide ( 5ft ) and reasonably tall (about 5 to 6 ft) fence out of thorny brush. Every time she cuts down blackberries, sloes, wild roses, etc. she just adds them to the "fence". I believe it's a technique used in parts of Africa. I've started doing the same thing in an area I want to use as a chicken paddock.

I've also heard of another technique along those lines. You cut down the thorny brush or trees when they are fruiting, lay them down where you want a hedge and let nature take care of the rest. The fruit falls off, seeds itself and the brush act to protect the new seedlings from deer. As the brush decomposes it also nourishes the seedlings. I'm going to use this technique to put in a lot of much needed hedgerows.

I just wanted to jump in here to say that I've found my cold frames are better for rooting cuttings than for seedlings. Because my husband did such a good job of making them insulated, they are a little too air tight for seedlings. The lack of air flow doesn't seem to pose a problem for the cuttings. I have had winters where I only watered the cuttings once and every single one took root. I think they get a lot of their water from condensation on the double glazed window which forms the lid.

I do have two small pre-fab greenhouses that are mounted on a south facing stone wall. I use them to start seeds in the spring. A lot of these seedlings are traded with friends and neighbors for other varieties. I do find that I need to start peppers, melons and eggplant in the greenhouse or they won't get enough of a head start. Our summers are usually three months of drought with very high temperatures during the day and cool temperatures at night. During the summer months my little greenhouses are far too hot for plants, but they do an excellent job drying fruit. Over wither, they house young or sensitive plants. I don't monkey around with worrying about trying to keep the inside temp above freezing. I sort of use my mini greenhouses like sun traps rather than real greenhouses. We had an awful cold snap this year which had lows around -15 C. Because I don't keep anything that isn't frost hardy up to -8 C, I didn't have to worry, which was nice.