I use a system that is like drip irrigation - but not quite.

It is made of 1/2" PVC pipe and then I drill 1/16" holes in the pipe near where the stems of plants are. If you have a typical garden and use regular plant spacing, you can put a 1/16" hole every six inches for plants spaced 6" apart, a 1/16" hold in the pipe every foot for plants spaced 12" apart, and so on.

It works well. I had it on a timer that ran every other day for 15 minutes and this was more than sufficient.

The idea with this is that the water is supplied directly to the plants without additional water seeping out where it is not needed - like with a soaker hose.

Each 10-foot section of 1/2-inch PVC pipe is about $1 at a local garden/home store.

This year I will be having it all hooked up to my 220 gallon rain water system. It will catch rain water off the garage, store it, and then I'll supply it through the PVC pipe when I'm ready to water. I'm still trying to figure out a solution for this where it is automatic and not manual.

Here are some links:

PVC Irrigation System
Slight Update to PVC Irrigation System
Water pushing through 1/16" holes in PVC pipe
220 Gallon Rain System

GW's Irrigation Forum has moderate traffic with some responses that read well.

It can be costly but for a garden of that size It would not be bad.

Dale

Here is a link that might be useful: The DripStore