It's not growing season if you hadn't noticed, anyone planning a garden plot next spring? With the rising price of everything it might be a good investment... At the least. Our garden didn't do as well this year, we expanded the plot and got very ambitious, then my wife got sick, I got sick. It was a tough season for us. But we did get a return in learning, we are very motivated "hobby" gardeners that feel an urgent need to be able to provide for our littles and help people when times get tougher.
To the point. What have you done to streamline your systems this year to either make more food, or take less energy?
What didn't work at all?

This year along with the new garden plot we put in a simple drip system and while it worked perfectly the soil was worthless, by the time the plants has established themselves the season was coming to an end. I've been learning about building soil and bringing in the things that make it usable for plants. It's fall time, so today I grabbed the trailer and ran around the neighborhood picking up the bags of leaves to spread over the garden plots to make and build soil and the worms love it. It takes effort and growing food it is a learned skill. The last time you want learn a new skill is during a fight, just like when your hungry is probably the wrong time to plant the garden.

Hope I can learn something from y'all and no one fell asleep 😉

"the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Rain water catchment and a compost bin are my recommendations.

For the rain water catchment I sourced a few plastic drums from a local industrial shop that had soap in them. Once I had them cleaned out I built a rack they could sit in on their side and plumbed them together with 2” pvc pipe and fittings. Bottom drum I setup with a hose spigot and after some creative rigging with the down spout off my gutter system I was cooking with gas. Only change I need to make is adding a vent and some sort of filter to catch debris. Water coming out of the spigot no problem but when filling you can hear the gurgling of the air trying to escape.

Compost is my favorite. Don’t know why but recycling food waste and yard debris is very enjoyable for me. My compost bin is constructed of 4 - 8’ pallets as the boarder. Nothing fancy just lined up and screwed together. Allows for good drainage and air flow. I collect all the leaves from the fall and pile them in. If I’m feeling motivated I will run my mulching mower over them before putting them in the compost. I find if I chop them up they break down much faster (rightfully so). During the spring and summer I put my grass clippings in. All year round I take any food waste and dump that in also. No meat products though, not looking to attract any scavengers and it keeps the flies down. Took me a few years to get the compost right, now I can put just about any yard clippings in and they are broken down in a few months. I turn the pile over 2-3 times a year. Once after everything thaws out, at the beginning of summer, and again before the winter. I also like to cover my pile with a tarp to keep the composting process going long into freezing temps. Only recommendation on the compost is find it forever home before starting it. I built mine next to my garage and because of some plans to make a cover car port next to garage the compost site needs to be moved.

Next spring I’m going to put together some raised beds and exhaust all the black gold I have created over the past 3 years. Plan is to build a 24” deep box along the back fence of the yard. Food will be protected from the animals and bed is south facing so tons of light. Of course because of where I’m putting the planter my water catchment might have to be relocated also so I can utilize the collected rain water. Going to mess around with solar panels that can run a pump to feed misters or a drip system.

My younger bro grabbed two rolls of last years hay (large round bales) and just rolled it out early in the year.
Seemed to work really well.
Be sure to plant the easy stuff like yellow squash along with the things you're trying out.
Keeps you motivated just having something growing.

Does he end up with weed problems when the hay starts some of the seed growing? I cover strawberries over the winter with straw or hay. I have an 8 x 30 foot bed of those.

I didnt have luck with much last year. i think i started too early. In prep for next year i started composting my chicken coop cleanout and throwing in scraps. Ill mix that with the soil from their run when i dig that out in the spring to fix drainage issues.

Now might be a good time to hit your local Ag Extension with soil samples so if need to amend garden fir nutrients. I did here in Tn and cost was approx. 25 bucks sample and shipping. When get back I'll run to local coop get what ever fertilizer is needed add in. They need (here) 6-8 samples randomly through garden approx 6inches deep it got mixed one box as if seperate would be 15 bucks a sample and Iam only doing small garden. Getting ready once thats back to get my early cold weather stuff started.
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I added a 2nd garden last year, closer to my house, not visible from the road, hidden by the barn and wood stacks.

Tomatoes. I use foot long 8 inch wife pvc. Put the tomatoes in the ground, as they grow put the tubes over them, remove the bottom leaves and fill dirt to up the stem. Those stem hairs will turn into roots.
I use livestock fencing for cages. My Roman were about 5 to 6 ft tall.

Also use an arched livestock fence for cukes. Works awesome to keep cukes off dirt and easy to see.

Freeze dried 11 gallons of salsa.

We have a freeze drier too. When we canned maters took skins and some of the "pulp" ya sometimes get rid of and run trays of that using it to thicken and mater flavor soups/stews. Also use that powdered to add to small amounts of water to make mater paste etc. Cant figure out anything tho with squash except butternut squash soup. Have made lasagna style noodles and freeze dried.
How bout water? I am playing with drip irrigation. and even fertilizing there too some. No expert tho still learning.