Keeping creatures out of a raised bed garden

I have a big (16 x 4) raised-bed (I mean *really* raised--it's about 3 feet tall) garden in my back yard, and every year by this time it has been overrun with weeds and unharvested green beans, and the reason is that the fence made it too hard for me to get into the dirt. We have a lot of wildlife--deer and groundhogs, especially--and we felt we needed a fence to protect our plants.

The fence we had was made of posts hung with sections of metal open-net wire fencing; it was in sections for easier removal and replacement.

This year I told my dear husband that I just couldn't work with a fence any more, and I wanted to see what would happen if we left the fence off. We grow a lot of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, herbs of various kinds, and flowers.

After the plants were established, I noticed that one pepper plant had been nibbled on. Otherwise, I was delighted with the no-fence garden. I was able to stay on top of it, and it was beautiful.

I went online for non-fence tips to keep animals out of the garden and found one that suggested shredding highly aromatic soap, like Irish Spring, onto the ground around your plants. The strong odor, it said, would repel animals. Problem was, you'd have to keep re-applying it, and I generally water my garden daily.

At Lowes I saw a shelf of really ugly citronella (mosquito-repelling) plants. They're actually scented geraniums, I think, but they are strongly scented. I bought six of them and planted them up and down the center of my garden, and guess what? I've had *no* animal depredations since!

I also have had very little--almost no--insect ravaging, either, and this bothers me a little because I notice there aren't any butterflies visiting the garden. But there are plenty of butterflies elsewhere in my yard, so I guess it's OK.

We are totally organic, using only our own home-made compost on the bed.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share this in the hope it might help someone else.