Research I've done so far says one plant. This year, after erecting a 6' or so high fence something dug underneath where I made a door. and got in the garden. I know I should have gone down a foot or so of chicken wire or whatever into the ground. I blocked that off with some bricks and so far I don't think anything of significance has gotten back in.
I picked a few tomatoes when they were at the breaker stage, something I learned here - and a few small ones that were ripe, and very good. Next year I'm considering growing tomatoes and cucumbers in containers, or make something to contain dirt on the deck and of course surround it with some find of fence. I know there's a lot of information online which I'll continue to research, as well as here. Five gallon buckets are cheap enough, but I wonder if making something to contain 6 - 8" or so of dirt directly on the deck would work? The theory is the water would drain between the deck boards.
The other situation is not even related to predators. In general the tomatoes didn't do that well in the garden, not that many and they were small. I'm thinking good quality soil on the deck in containers or something will produce better results next year. On another website I keep seeing an ad for a free 5 gallon container gardening guide to be emailed. I see there's a lot of posts here, I will review them.
