Just something to keep in mind with the wire ideas, rats can fit through things that are the size of their head. If the head fits, the rest of the rat can too! That being said, perhaps some really tight wire? I've also personally had luck with decoys (I've got an owl who's head turns with the wind as though it's looking around, as well as a snake that looks ready to strike- the snake isn't realistic colors, but has a very realistic shape). I live right on a canyon so there are all types of critters out there (including things that eat rats and other possible pests like rabbits). We also get red tail hawks flying around. I like the idea of attracting more local predators to take care of the rats- owls especially for the evening hours as someone had mentioned. Perhaps if it gets really bad you can do something with motion detectors that active lights and/or jets of water? Just something to startle the rat off and make it think things aren't safe. I've heard of people doing that for larger things like raccoons, not sure if it would work with rats.

I agree with Dorothy that the soil test will be the best indicator of what's going on in your garden. With peas, you didn't mention if you are growing shelling peas to eat as green peas or edible podded peas. Shelling peas don't produce that well for me here and I don't bother growing them. Usually, by the time they are starting to produce well, they are burning up in the heat. Edible podded peas produce great some year and not so great in other years, and it is all about the weather. Often, our springtime weather does not stay cool enough long enough for peas to produce much. In those years when the spring weather see saws from hot to cold and back again, the peas don't know what to do. They don't sprout well in cold soil, but they grow well in cold soil and cool air temperatures if you can get them to sprout. I start them inside like Dorothy does and have much more success from edible podded peas like Sugar Snap and Super Sugar Snap than with green shelling peas. I try to get my peas in the ground in March and mostly harvest them in May, though in some years with a longer, cooler spring, they've produced well into mid-June or even later. Usually, though, as soon as June heats up they give up and I yank them out and replace them with summer peas (cowpeas, crowders, purplehulls, black-eyed, zipper or lady peas). I'm not sure why Swiss chard and kale aren't doing well for you. They both are pretty easy here, and I do have fairly alkaline soil and water. It might be the timing of your plantings. Cukes and squash both suffer from many pests and many diseases. It can take a while to find varieties with flavor you like that also resist disease and pests. Growing them under floating row covers helps, although (unless you plant gynoecious varieties) you will have to lift the row covers and hand pollinate them. Because I have virtually unlimited space, I normally don't use row covers on any of the cucurbit family veggies. I just regularly sow seeds for succession plants so that I always have new plants coming along in case disease and pests get the current plants. 2013 was a great cucurbit year here because we didn't have cucumber beetles. I think I saw 3 or 4 the whole summer. Some years, I see 3 or 4 per cucumber or squash flower. Usually, when you are getting hit-and-miss results in a garden, that's fairly normal. Everything we grow has specific conditions they like and in which they thrive. Not every plant type will be happy in the same year. As for carrots......it is all about the soil temperature. In order to have them growing when the soil and air temperatures are best for them, we have to try to get them to sprout in soil that really is too cold for good germination. Sometimes you can get around that by putting black plastic over your soil to pre-warm it so you can get the carrots off to a good start. I can fuss over soil preparation and seed-sowing and get a poor stand of carrots, which just really ticks me off......and I can take leftover carrot seeds, toss them into the beds underneath the tomato plants (before the plants are mulched) and the carrots will come up everywhere in the tomato beds and serve as a living mulch. I think they do it just to show me that they are the boss and will grow when they want where they want no matter what I want. It might not be that there is any glaring deficiency in your soil, but you won't know without a soil test. It could be the soil holds too much moisture and drains too slowly or it does the opposite--holds too little moisture and drains too quickly. It could be there is something in your soil eating seeds before they sprout, or just after they do. It could be that you need to tweak the timing of your plantings. With our erratic spring weather, sometimes it is hard to get the seeds in the soil at the best time for them. I had trouble getting beans to grow for a couple of years. after having grown them successfully for many years.They'd sprout and disappear, so I knew something was eating the bean sprouts. Eventually I caught one of our cats eating bean sprouts, and then another two cats doing the same thing. So, now I cover freshly seeded bean rows with row covers so the cats cannot eat the freshly sprouted beans. Being cats, they think the row covers are cat blankets and like to lay on top of them....thereby crushing the young bean plants. Sometimes the problems you encounter with a type of plant in a garden are oddball things like that. A couple of years ago I blocked the cat gate into the garden with a piece of plywood so that they could not go into the garden unless I am in there with the main gate open. That seemed to put a halt to the cats dining on bean sprouts because they behave better when I'm out there with them. The downside is that since the cats aren't always in the garden, more field mice and voles are in there and that attracts snakes. Sometimes you just can't win.

Your question is akin to asking what breed of cat is not susceptible to fleas. The building construction and foundation can make any door,esp sliders prone to leak. Before investing in a new door of any brand,have your home evaluated by an expert(s). That might be done by prospective installer during estimate process. I have been forced to cover more than a few door entries where foundation was the root problem. Another common problem occurs when patio is at or near same level as floor inside house. A patio that is dead level or sloping towards house. Don't overlook flashing,the water often enters from above or off to the side of where you first see it. One final piece of advice. Caulk look's bad and only works temporarily,regardless how much is slopped on.

I got Chrome in one bathroom and brushed stainless in the other. I love Chrome. Easy to just wipe it down whenever I see spots. Doesn't take that long. I used the turtle wax and so the water doesn't hang on it. The brushed stainless looks horrible though. I would never use that.