I had 2 orange grape tomatoes on my biggest plant, just a couple days shy of being harvested... the first tomatoes since putting in my new garden this year! Went out to water today, and the entire branch is gone. :(

The way they chomed the branch looked just like the way the branches on my dwarf apple tree disappear... so I'm blaming the deer.

Any good, budget friendly remedies to keep the deer away?? I have 4 raised beds in the back garden, ranging from 4x4 to 4x10. Constructed with 2x8s. Plus an additional 8x20 bed in the front (just potatoes and brassicas in that one,) half a dozen container tomatoes, and a lone dwarf apple tree that I've never gotten a ripe apple from.

I can't afford an all-out fence right now, and I haven't managed to get any posts/stakes hammered deep enough into my clay soil to make them sturdy.

Started noticing holes in my bush beans yesterday as well. I was out hand-picking little brown and black spotted beetles from those this morning. Not sure if there's a more effective method of managing those?