Boats will stop and stay when there's no one in them, unless you or something else pushes them around. When you get it where you want it, jump out. But they are aggro magnets, so I usually destroy mine to get the materials back before something else does it.

A fine wood wall would be nice.

The mod "plant everything" will let you do as it says with the cultivator. The devs have no plans to let you plant bushes because they want you to go out of your base and forage.