I often get wistful reading about you folks with vegetable gardens. I live in a suburban townhouse community directly next to a vast forest with deer, rabbits, owls, snakes and foxes; and although I love it for its own merits, I have given up on the possiblity of vegetable gardening.
So, forget about tomatoes, hostas, geraniums, hydrangea, impatiens, lilies, liriope, English holly, arbor vitae, azalea and so many other ornamentals—eaten to the nub. Critters dig up tulip bulbs, and even pull mums and wire garden fences right out of the ground. Deer stroll the front sidewalks, munching as they go.
Then there are the dog walkers who defy the bylaws and back their entitled royal doggies right up to your plantings to do their business. So my focus has been on perennials and annuals that at least the animals don't like to eat!
I had a great spring this year with two colors of clematis blooming beautifully, and a gorgeous display of ground cover bugleweed in bloom, which it does for about 2-3 weeks before reverting to its normal all-green leaf state.
Oh I feel your pain! The best I can do is an herb garden. I tried adding broccolini, onions, and baby potatoes this year. All are a bust with the exception of the baby potatoes, which I don’t know yet. They have huge green sprouts on the top, but I don’t think the little potatoes will be ready until October or November if I’m at all lucky.
I say we are semi-rural here, because, while we live in a neighborhood (with an HOA 😠), we back up to farmers. The county courthouse is a mile away, but if you drive 1/4 mi from my house, you’re in farm country. Expansive farm country. I so wish we could have a few restrictions released, but the folks around me have no idea that I have so much wildlife that roams my 1-2/3 acre every day. In fact, we have a “certified wildlife habitat”. I bet if I did try to plant vegetables (if I ever had enough sun in my yard), the critters would make mincemeat out of it in no time.