"I'm thinking the only way to get good looking plants would be to go with a drip system"

Why ???

I'm not clear what system you currently have and why it does not work ??

Drip in general will not make getting water to your plants any easier ... in fact it is often more difficult .. it will simply allow you to apply water at a very slow rate and avoid puddles and run off ... which is useful if you have a heavy clay soil.

"I'm thinking the kind where you lay the black tubes and splice in tees and emitters "

Keep in mind you really do not need ** any ** flexible pipe per say ... emitters are what define a drip system NOT the type of plumbing although many associate drip with flexible black pipe it often leads to poor system design. This type of pipe should be kept to a minamum if used at all.

"As I add plants can I add more emitters easily? "

With a drip "spray" system you will be able to add and remove plants without concern but it will be more work in the beginning since you will need to re route pipes ...

A "drip spray" system is a hybrid of traditional spray systems and drip emitters ... these emitters spray a few feet up to four feet or so and apply water at a very slow rate ... allowing you to irrigate an entire area not simply the root zone of a given plant.

A major benafit is you can add more plants later and not have to adjust the location of your irrigation emiiters with each change to the garden ... very useful if you plan on adding plants to the garden each season .. like flowers ect..

A pressure regulator should be used in this system so you can control the overall distances the emiiters in the system spray and avoid overspray ... in general drip systems require a pressure regulator.

"Also my controller can only do maximum of 99 minutes, is this enough? "

In general it's workable ... you should have more then one start time on your controler .. so you should not be completely limited to one start time .. there are different sized emitters so it depends but I don't see a problem.

Check out Rainbird's Pro catalog .. stay away from the junk at Home Depot ect ... work with a pro irrigation shop.

Good Day ...

I have been using the Rain Bird 1/2 " drip tubing with the emitters built in. They are self cleaning. Spacing available is 12", 18" and 24" apart. Works very well.

I just got an old hose, drilled 1/32" holes in it about every 4". There's my drip system. Now I can hook that up to a regular hose timer.