I think you are going to have to fence off the vegetables so the deer can't get to them, as it doesn't sound like you have much of an alternative with so many deer and neighbors who encourage them. If you don't like the idea of substantial fences of sufficient height to keep them out, you might look into a double set of strung wire fences at least 5 feet tall and set 5 feet apart, so they can't jump them.

Yes: The solution is exclusion. Fencing manufactured specifically for deer is on the market. Other kinds of animals will attack garden plants also, for any kind of serious gardening without chronic heartbreak you must work within an enclosure anyway.

Well for right now i am going to have to grow them in pots, as I dont much in the way of new space in my garden...should they bother them if i bring the pots close to the house at night? we luckily dont have much population in the way of rabbits in this part of town (thank god!!) so its mainly the deer i am concerned with...

Yes, if they want it they will come for it. No barrier, no security. Deer are highly selective browsers, move from spot to spot nibbling on the good stuff. Favored specimens will be hit again and again, perhaps with little damage seen on most other plants around them.

However, they apparently often don't like to stick their heads into dense evergreen shrubbery or other places where unseen danger could lurk. While it would be more trouble than just enclosing them you probably could stick the potted plants behind some bushes or other obstacles each night and get by with that.

Another relevant point is that tomato plants are tropical vegetables that really don't find conditions here in our cool summer climate particularly stimulating - you can get much better results growing them under cover anyway.

I have used a Scarecrow successfully -- it's squirted me many times, and last year used an electric fence around a perennial garden. We put it on a timer to come on just before dusk and turn off after it got light. We had one incursion and other mornings I would see them just outside the fence so I know it worked. Other than that, my veggie garden is deer fenced. They have been on our patios and even when they don't like something, they give it a try and then spit it out. It's a choice. Live within a compound or lose plants.

hahaha i love that "live within a compound". it truly makes it seem like a serious war...which of course it is.