You have to leave some space between plants anyway, so what I generally do is place some inexpensive pavers here and there to walk on--they also make an impermeable "mulch" around veggies that don't cast much shade. Right now it's probably still cool enough for you to be planting peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and cabbages/brussels sprouts/broccoli/cauliflower, none of which enjoy hot weather. The peas and radishes will be gone first, and eventually the spinach and lettuce will also give up to the summer heat, so do your spacing with that in mind. Swiss chard and beets can also be planted now, but will last longer...chard will take some frost so is a good veggie to plant if you like it. Onion starts and green onions (from little bulbs) can also be planted early. For your space allotment, you would be better with peas (and later, green beans, if not tomatoes) as climbers on tripods or netting on the side of your bed away from the sun so they don't shade other things. You could plant your tomatoes (or green beans) where the peas were, as they should not be planted until comfortably after your last frost date, but a few weeks later will still get you tomatoes. You could plant zucchini where the lettuce and radishes were. Etc. If you plant peppers, which generally have a similar growth habit to tomatoes, but a bit smaller, plant then about the same time as tomatoes--when it is consistently warm with no possibility of a frost. Plan to plant any vining crops like cucumbers, winter squash, zucchini, etc. on the edge of your bed which faces the sun the longest. The sun will draw them away from the bed so that they won't compete as much with whatever else you have planted. They are the most susceptible to cold, and are usually planted some time after tomatoes and peppers. Bush zucchini can also get quite large and cast a lot of shade. Someone else will have to advise you about carrots, celery, potatoes...I am not experienced with those. If you like artichokes, though, you should try them. You will have faster results if you purchase pregrown cabage family, tomatoes, and artichokes, but it's a waste to spend money for starts of lettuce, spinach, and most other vegetables...most of the vine ones do fine direct seeded asa the weather is consistently warm, which is when tomatoes also do best...but it does stretch the growing season to use plants for those with the longest times to maturity. Tomatoes will survive before the weather is consistently warm as long as there are no frosts, but not do as well as if you had waited. Ones planted at the optimal time will usually get just as large as those planted earlier, and be more productive. If you plant full sized tomato plants, tomato cages are advisable, and they would also be helpful to pepper plants and Brussels sprouts. Obviously, you will not be able to plant all of these, but will have to choose which you like the best and go from there. Tomatoes are usually a priority for most, and three or four well grown plants properly spaced can yield a good quantity of tomatoes. If you like hot peppers, the Thai ones make a small plant and produce quite a few little red peppers toward the end of the summer. Brussels sprouts take up quite a bit of room, but can be picked over a period of time, unlike cabbage. Some varieties of broccoli are especially good at producing side shoots when the main head has been cut off. You can get quite a few green onions with one short row, if you like them. Peas and green beans, if kept picked when ready, will keep producing (peas only until it gets hot). Ditto with zucchini and cucumbers. The winter squashes are usually not ready until late summer, but if you pick some green for summer use it will sometimes stimlate more to be developed. The vegetables that don't do well in heat either die (peas) or start producing seed (lettuce, spinach, broccoli, etc.) In some countries, radish seed pods are pickled, I have noticed. Also, I think radish leaves make a tasty vegetable, either steamed or stir fried. So do beet greens.

I had a problem with squirrels digging up things and I have used three different solutions and all worked pretty well. One time I tried fox urine. You buy it in places where they sell hunting supplies. I put it on a cotton ball and just left it in the flower beds. The other solution was to plant stuff and then lay chicken wire on top of the beds. I cut the wire in strips and little squares and laid it on top of the ground around the plants. The last suggestion is to plant a daffodil bulb when you put in your plants. They are poison to squirrles and they can smell them in the soil and will avoid them. Cheryl

Birds can make a huge mess. Rabbits and squirrels are everywhere. Rabbits are nocturnal so you wouldn't necessarily see them. Boomers dig BIG holes and make a HUGE mess, orders of magnitude beyond what a bird will do. There are lots of ground feeding birds that do what you're describing. They're not going to differentiate between the forest floor or meadow that they'd normally have, and your garden. Robins, towhees, sparrows, thrushes, flickers, all are ground feeders and will dig and poke and scratch and toss. Crows and starlings will do it too. And chickens! they're as bad as dogs in the garden. I always start my peas and beans inside, to prevent their being eaten by rats and birds. Bird scare tape helps too.

I have problems with the squirrels as well as the wild turkeys digging in my planting beds and I have found the best way to keep them out is to tightly fence the beds in, and that often includes a top fence since the squirrels will climb over any vertical only fence. Since many of the beds are 4 x 4 I make support frames for the fences from 2 x 2s. Many people have tried repellents and find the cost often prohibitive, or that the critters become used to the repellent and then ignore it. Even though we now have coyotes around here placing anything with coyote urine around the garden has no deterent affect, no more than my dog had if the dog was not physically present in the yard. If predator urines actually did work the predators would find they had no food because the prey would leave that area very quickly.