Asking: Rats In The Belfry (Or Rather, Brussel Sprouts)

Calling all urban gardeners! I need some advice, yo.

This year I started my very own vegetable garden - MY VERY OWN GARDEN! - in the backyard of my very own apartment - MY VERY OWN APARTMENT! (The My Very Own Apartment is Big and Important - capital B, capital I - so proper props are due.) I've been super excited about the fresh fruit and vegetables MY VERY OWN GARDEN will yield, but there's a small problem...

... Or rather, a large problem.

A rather large RAT problem.

Living in the city has its benefits, but there are also drawbacks. Rats? They're the biggest drawback, the motherlode of drawbacks. There's nothing worse than walking down the sidewalk all nonchalant, only to be disrupted from your reverie by the SQUEAK! and SCRABBLE! of rats as they skedaddle from the garbage cans they were ravaging.

When those SQUEAKS! and SCRABBLES! are happening in your garden - ON YOUR FOOD - the worse becomes even worser.

I know that there will always be something out there in the world that will sneak into my garden and eat my vegetables, and I will concede that rats will occasionally feast on my Brussel sprouts, but there HAS to be a way to keep that feasting to a minimum.

Any advice from you seasoned urban gardeners? How do I dissuade the rats from my garden? (Solutions that do not include me picking up dead rat carcasses preferred.)

*Year of the Rat image from bluebison.net.