First you have to discover what is doing the damage. No point in putting up a short fence to keep out what is actually deer, for instance, or something that is coming out of the ground near the plants.

Sounds more like deer, or could be a ground squirrel, from what you've described.

You could try bird netting, but I personally don't like the stuff. I once had to disentangle a quail hen from it while the male patiently stood by.
Using a scarecrow may be your best bet.........

Here is a link that might be useful: Scarecrow

If it's the foliage being eaten you need to consider the tomato hornworm. Raccoons would eat the fruit but not the leaves or stems. Hornworms are huge caterpillars that only come out at night and are surprisingly hard to find during the day for something that's 4" long. Caterpillars are green with white stripes on the sides, and they eat so much that entire branches dissappear overnight. You'll need to go out at night with a flashlight to find them. Then just pick them off. No need to spray.

Deer will eat tomato foliage I think, but not just the lower branches, being tall creatures they start at the top of the plant.

We have both raccoons and opossums in our garden constantly and they've never bothered the vegetable garden. Ever.

We have multiple water features and the coons come and destroy but the opossums just drink and leave though I did find a baby one in the bird feeder recently.