hello and nice to meet you. I too am going into my 4th year of gardening up here on the kitsap peninsula/washington. I have chickens but only let them free range in winter months when it doesn't matter if they stage an attack on the garden
I did find that deer really like beet tops this year. I do raised lasagna beds for the most part, hate to have to till any thing and haven't yet in my veggie garden. I go with getting good bugs from http://www.arbico-organics.com/ to keep the bad bugs at bay with out chemicals and it works very well. my husband thinks I am nuts not tilling and doing lasagna beds he get fresh stuff to eat all winter out of the garden but he is stuck in the old ways of gardening in florida. check out the back to eden web site and video it has helped me do my garden in line with nature instead of fighting it 