We have bird netting over the blueberry plants,
@Recovery4Me - which created an issue with a black rat snake getting trapped in it. We managed to get the netting cut and got the snake in a pillow case to take it to a wildlife center to ensure it was okay, then brought it back to let it loose. I used to run like hell if I'd see a snake. lol
We had a strawberry patch that we put netting around. A neighbor was giving away the screen panels of an old whatchamacallit (I can't remember the name - an outdoor seating thingy that was screened in) and some were damaged, but very usable for our purpose. We took those and made a fence of sorts around the strawberry patch, then used the netting over the top. Made it hard to stand up out there, lol, but we managed. The excess rains ended up pretty much drowning that spot out, so we disassembled it.
Some of the pots we plant in are placed underneath a 4 post wooden grape trellis and fenced in with the rolls of wire fencing, but done in a way that can easily be moved to do the watering and harvesting. That's where the variety of peppers grow. We're overwintering our pepper plants in the basement this year. Didn't even know you could do that, but saw someone say they had great luck with it, so we're trying it. The purposely planted dandelion greens pot and pots of peppermint are alongside the house with no netting or fence. Nothing seems to bother them.
The tomato plants (mostly cherry, plum, and volunteers) are in big black pots in front of the house, in between the herbs/greens raised beds. We've only had a tomato plant be messed with once (only a few came up missing that had ripened - a Cherokee purple variety) since doing that, so we don't bother fencing those in. We use wider gauge fencing to make the trellises with. We also put tomato plants in pots on the front porch of an old abandoned small house next to ours (from the 1800s that my husband's parents originally lived in before building this one). We rigged up some of the rolls of wire fencing to put around those, too, that can easily be moved to do the watering and harvesting.
We also learned to put fencing around the raised beds, or else they become the all-you-can-eat buffet. lol The deer loved eating the sweet potato greens that grew outside of the parameters of the fence. (and the beet greens, and the kale, and the spinach, etc.) Once it came time to harvest the sweet potatoes (that were in their own raised bed), we removed the fence the day before and they ate up every single leaf. lol I eat them, too. Yum! They have damn good taste. :)
The big garden has a fence, too. A bear tore part of it down our first year planting and got into our corn. We're expanding the space this year and making it a much stronger fence. Many of our fencing projects were pieced together with old fencing from the what was left in the workshop and such from his late father, so it wasn't much of an expense. Hoping we can both still function well enough to keep tending to it all in order to stock the freezer, the pantry, and share the extras. Fingers crossed for wellness, mobility, and patience to keep going and growing. I love that you've found joy in growing stuff. It really is therapeutic, as well as frustrating, exhausting, thrilling, and full of surprises. Definitely keeps the brain entertained. Will be glad to share some pics when I dig some up. I'll put them in the photo thread and tag you.
We put an asparagus bed in the side of a small hill when we first moved in. The last 2 yrs we've gotten some decent harvests off of it. We don't have it fenced in and nothing has bothered it.
To start seeds indoors, we have a big black wire shelving unit that has an old workshop metal encased fluorescent light that is on the very top shelf. We use various containers to put the starter pots in underneath that. We keep a fan in there and move it around from side to side every other day to help strengthen them. So far it's worked really well. We got a heated mat to put underneath the containers and that kicked the growth up a notch, for sure.
I also do sprouts indoors, grow some herbs indoors, and purchase trays of microgreens from a friend and harvest them every couple of weeks. I bought the stuff to do my own, but want to support her small business while I can. Our mushroom logs that we purchased from a local farmer produced enough shiitakes for a couple meals, the darn slugs ate the oyster shrooms that were growing, and I lucked out and found a nice sized lion's mane mushroom on a dead tree next to our mountain stream. I was so excited! :) As I sit here awaiting to wake up tomorrow to about 8 or so inches of snow, all this gardening talk makes me want to go do a sun dance.
Thank you for giving me that to look forward to. :)
Amazing to read and obtained some solid information for consideration. I am really impressed having been on a farm once with the forethought and ingenuity that the two of you use.
Totally worth it for a boutique agricultural business (or zombie apocalypse ;)) but not for an extra foot of tree growth per annum (when I wanted them small, anyway) or 10% more lemons, ya know? Especially as I mostly considered the lemons bonus. I like the ways the trees made the air feel (not just the extra o2, but the citrus oils, and woodsy-ish-ness), the scent of them year round, & their blossoms in the spring. 
The fruiting was just bonus.
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