Dealing with Critters in the Vegetable Garden

There are so many elements in growing vegetables that gardeners have to contend with, from drought to heavy inundation and pests and diseases. When the joy of watching your fruiting plants grow becomes disconcerting after critters, that are understandably hungry, eat their way through your upcoming harvest and leave you wondering what to do next, this happened to me over the winter here in zone 10A. I have a 16-foot raised bed in another part of my yard that has plastic mesh draped over a bamboo frame that "secures" it from critters, or so I thought. It did a satisfactory job keeping the critters at bay. However, in January, when my cauliflowers, radishes, and kale were developing nicely, there was a critter raid at night where the culprits tore a two-foot hole in the plastic netting and thrashed about, consuming this very promising crop. Mysteriously, they left my carrots alone. I harvested them about a month ago--they were crunchy, tasty, and sweet.
Be that as it may, after the raid on my winter vegetable garden, I made the decision to build a structure to protect my vegetables. I am still using the 16-foot raised garden bed with its plastic netting as well. My rationale, "Well, maybe it was the phenomenally wet and cool winter here which made the critters ravenous. There will be more to eat in the spring other than my vegetables."
Nevertheless, I believe the metal wire mesh in this new raised-bed Vegetable Sanctuary will offer security from the critters at 100% effectiveness.

Here is the link to "Ollas":    • Drought Busting Ollas Part 2, Using Them i...  

Filling raised garden beds can be fairly costly, so I have included this link to how I make my own compost. After adding perlite, peat moss, gypsum, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus for my tomatoes and cucumbers, it cost me about 30 dollars, while buying soil would be about ten times that much.
Here is the link to how I make my compost:    • Detailed Steps for Making Home Garden Compost