IMHO it depends upon what you are going to plant. Xeric, drag a hose out there after established. Soaker hoses from the BigBox will fall apart in several years. Bubblers are an option if you just have several areas that need water. Hard to say with info given.

Dan

I don't know if this would help, but I have luck with cheapo 5/8" dia standard 50' garden hoses where I drill a clean 3/8" hole every foot or so, and then just attach the regular garden hose to the end of the one with the perforations. You can lay out the hose then drill custom holes, to put the water where you want it, and later, if you don't want a hole to gurgle, cover it with duct tape. You do need to figure out the pressure, no need for full blast, and something above a trickle to get the water to all the holes and not be blasting out the first few in the hose.

I do this with raw irrigation ditch water, which often has silt, baby crawdads and what not, so I can't use normal drip irrigation stuff or soaker hoses. They say that bugs will get into "the system" and mess it up, but I haven't noticed a problem.

Chapter 14 in the hillbilly gardening handbook.

I tried soaker hose and water system with emitters in the line. Neither did a very good job on my raised beds. The best for me is to put a diffuser on the end of the hose and let it fill the bed. Only have to water once a week (or less)if the area is mulched.

This is where a soil water meter comes in handy. The top 2" may seem moist but after that the soil is dry with the soaker system. With the fill the bed method the opposite is true, the top dries out and the rest is quite moist.

Love Dan's idea because you can get more water through such that it actually waters the area. My problem with low water delivery rate is that it evaporates before it waters the plants.

Interesting.
I have a drip system too. It's been in place for about 24 years and have a few thousands drippers on it and has two controllers with 10 zones. Yeah, every year some part of it needs some sort of repair or replacement, but it's not bad considering how huge it is (the main pipe runs around an entire acre). While I still use single emitters for things like roses, I've been using the drip line with inline emitters for years with very good results with the daylilies, iris, vegetable gardens, annuals and other stuff. I think the trick is to let it run while for a good soak. Plus, I weave the dripline around the plants rather than just run it straight along side them so they get watered all around. At one time we used soaker hose but the soaker hoses worked for a year or two, then clogged. The inline dippers don't seem to clog.

Thanks for the creative ideas, all. I think I'll avoid the soaker hoses after all. David, where can I get a copy of that hillbilly gardening handbook...could definitely come in handy! :)

Trish

T-Tape might be an option for you