lucy said:

Does anyone have any ideas for how to keep ants and birds out of the
vegetable garden?
The birds are large black ones, I'm not sure if they are crows or not. I
tried growing tomatoes last year and they ate them,

Usually supplying the birds with drinking water is enough to protect
tomatoes.

I use bird netting draped over a framework of PVC pipe to protect vulnerable
fruits and seedlings from birds. It is important to suspend the netting away
from the plants you are protecting (as the birds will otherwise peck through
the netting). You also need to be sure to pin the netting to the ground at the
bottom. A frame made of PVC pipe (weighed down with a few strategic bricks)
or pieces of 2x2 boards of the appropriate length will effectively pin the bottom
of the bird netting.

I also had a problem
with ants around some lettuce I tried to grow.

I don't know where you are and what type of ants you are up against. Normally
ants wouldn't bother lettuce, except possibly to farm aphids on it. Soapy water
will kill the aphids. (Use it in the morning or evening, or on a cloudy day, and
be sure to rinse the plants off with plain water within the next hour.)

You won't be able to grow lettuce where there is a large ant mound. If you insist
on that spot will have to eliminate the mound. This may involve drenching with
pesticides or baiting, depending on the type of ant. Sometimes regular digging
and drenching with plain or soapy will force the ants to relocate their mound.
Be advise that with some ant species disrupting the nest will be a painful or even
dangerous activity.

I have a large ant mound near my house in a flower bed planted with cactus
and other succulents. These plants are able to grow even in the loose ant
mound, showing no sign of ant damage, and the ants never invade my house.
It seems that the mound ants have eliminated the carpenter ants which used to
occasionally forage in the house. I am also lucky in that these ants are not
aggressive and have shown no signs of being able or willing to sting.
--
Pat K. ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)