Since my kitchen garden is highly visible from the house and screened porch I wanted something attractive. So, when we redesigned the garden a few years ago we installed a metal fence from Lowe's. It started to rust from the inside out within the first 3 months. It's now 3 years later and time to bite the bullet. We're installing an aluminum fence in a couple weeks. February 2009: May 2009: February 2012:

I would skip the corn and the pumpkins in a limited space. Your space isn't small, but it also isn't particularly big enough for the monster growers. Strawberries are there year after year, so you can free up some space in your vegetable garden by putting them in a permanent bed. Mine are along the side of the house as under-planting for shrubs. (Which happen to be blueberries.) It your summers are warm, it may be too hot for lettuce. You are going to need paths between your rows or beds as well, which will take up a bit more space. 12" wide should be enough. Depending on your size, most folks are able to reach into 4' beds. Some people can do 5'. I would not really worry about companion planting this year -- just start greening up your thumb. To do your layout, I would cut up some post-it notes and play with it like a puzzle. So many 2'x2' squares for individual (determinate!) tomato plants, etc. If you want a LOT of plants, be sure to pick compact varieties. But mostly for your first year, I would grow whatever the common varieties are in your area. An older local gardener will know, or the local farmer's co-op if you have one. That way you are starting with varieties proven to perform in your area instead of not knowing if a plant is dying to lack of care, too much care, or just inappropriateness. I would also send off for a soil test. Your county agricultural extension agent/office can tell you how. Sometimes they are free; sometimes they cost a little bit. It's just $7 here, and worth it in helping remove guesswork on improving your soil

Sorry about that bad link. RC used to have an extensive web site so maybe it is being redone or something. I didn't notice the "under construction" note and I have been to the site before, so I thought it was working. But yes, google her and you can find lots of info. about her books and articles where she discusses some of her techniques and ideas. There are also books on permaculture and forest gardening that take trees and shade into account when planning gardens. Again, google is your friend, there are lots of great online articles about permaculture and food forest garden design. But again, depends on what you like to eat and want to grow.

Well, we have a fence around our small garden for the same reason. We went with chicken wire and metal stakes because it was the least expensive. Also, the chicken wire is a bit wobbly and curled, we put about 12 inches above the end of the posts, which I read discourages animals from climbing it to get into the garden (squirrels and such, but if they really want to, they will . . . ) Wobbly chicken wire is not particularly attractive, BUT, I have hung some small metal sculptures on the fence, little bees, butterflies and dragonflies, so that has been fun. It looks OK once the plants get big, they are attractive and the fence sort of fades into the background. Also, if you have the space, you can plant flowers around the fence that will both look nice and repel critters . . . somethings like rue, mint, wormwood, chives, tansy, etc. At best you can hope for slightly less attacks than if you didn't fence it, which is why we went with an inexpensive option. Deer are one of our biggest problems and that we managed to keep them out, and groundhogs. Squirrels, well . . . brunswick stew! :) We occasionally kill chipmunks with rat traps, just to keep their numbers down, they don't bother the garden plants but their digging does . . . . We don't expect total victory, but don't want to get overrun either . . .