We're lucky (?) to have quite a range of wildlife in our garden but they can cause havoc in the Fruit and Veg garden. The pigeons are probably the worst, we seem to be overrun with the blessed things and they love to peck at many of the vegetables particularly when the plants are young. We also have to contend with Squirrels that seem to like carrots and potatoes (and Tulips ?) as well as our own and others Cats that just like digging things up ! Occasionally we also have a Badger in the garden which digs tunnels under fences but has so far not gone near my veg ! An Otter has also been seen in a nearby garden but no sign of it in my garden even though we have a pond.
My soft fruits are grown in a Fruit Cage (from Harrod Horticulture) so that keeps the birds off though a few years ago we had a rabbit in the garden which nibbled holes in the plastic netting all around the bottom of the cage, it now has a 2' high protective layer of steel netting all around !
To protect my carrots from the squirrels I built a small cage, it is covered with 10mm plastic netting and occupies just under half a raised bed, the top can be opened for access.
Its made from roof batten timber screwed together and the netting is stapled on.
This worked fine in keeping the squirrels and other animals off the carrots however I still had a problem with Carrot Fly which has resulted in most of the carrots being attacked. So last year I built a Mark 2 Carrot Cage using a fine mesh (again from Harrod Horticulture):
This worked a treat last year, absolutely no carrot fly damage !
Slugs can cause havoc especially with salad plants and I've not really found a solution other than slug pellets ?
I also usually get an infestation of aphids on the Runner and Broad Beans which if things get really bad I have to resort to using pesticides sparingly trying hard not to kill off the ladybirds.