How does your garden grow?

Really. I�m asking. How does your garden grow? Cause I want to grow a vegetable garden. :)

This year, I have been hit with the must-grow-our-own-food-I-may-not-ever-use-because-I-hardly-cook bug. I MUST have my own carrots. And lettuce. Pumpkins. (Ack! Can you imagine how fun it would be to grow your own pumpkins??)

I do OK with plants � we can�t have many inside because we have three cats. One of those cats eats ANYTHING green. When my sweet hubby sends me roses, we have to put them on the highest point in house, where I can barely see them or smell them � just so our vegetarian cat won�t eat them.

And if you have cats you know that just about every plant or flower is poisonous for cats. I stand in the middle of the Lowe�s indoor plant section quite often with my phone, looking up the list of poisonous plants � and it�s pretty much every plant known to man. (OK, I know. Not that many. But all of the plants I want.)

So anyhoo�I do OK outside. I�m super proud of my gorgeous azaleas and massive lilies:

I used to have a fifth azalea plant in the middle of that bed, but a nasty vermin, rodent, blasted booger of a thing ate the roots of it last year. So I need to find a matching species this year to replant.

I�m great with trees, bushes, etc. But for some reason I can�t keep a rose bush alive to save my life. I�m determined to master that this year � I think I�ve been planting them in the wrong spots.

So back to the food. Last summer I got this:

And it actually worked great! I cannot tell you my glee when I saw my first green tomatoes coming in. When they got red, and just needed a few more days to ripen�I went to pick them days later and every time, some blasted, nasty vermin, rodent something or other had picked them right off and ate them.
ALL of them! (The planter wasn�t hanging high enough, obviously.)

So that brings me to my questions. We are so fortunate that our backyard backs up to woods and a massive field � so we get a lot of wildlife. Wildlife that likes tomatoes. (??)

I know I need to create a bed � but do you just put up chicken wire or something similar to keep the animals out? Will animals try to eat all veggies, or just certain ones?

Also, are bugs usually a problem? And if you�ve ever grown a vegetable garden, what did you use as compost? I would love to use our grass clippings, but hubby uses chemicals on the yard occasionally, so I know that�s out. I found a compost pail you keep in your kitchen that looks like a great option to make our own:

Has anyone tried it or something similar?

Basically, if you�ve ever grown a vegetable�and actually gotten to EAT said vegetable, I�d love any advice you can offer! I�m a total newbie! Any tips? Any veggies that are easier to grow than others?

I WILL have my own tomatoes. I will!! By the way, you all rock � in advance. :) 

Have a great weekend!