Hi there! I hope someone local to you can help to answer since it is probabaly very different in a colder climate than where I am. I can tell you that for my heavy black/brown clay soil you actually don't need special drip irrigation products though. Just the regular .710 and 1/4 inch hoses, connectors and drippers. You may need 2 - 4 slow drippers around some larger plants, but if you're putting it in yourself you could always start with just 1 dripper and see how they do.

I like to keep mine on manual at first instead of timed whenever I put in a new system so I can monitor them until I have a feel for the best timing. I also like to leave the drip irrigation system on for a long time every few days instead of shorter periods every day. That seems to work best in clay soil. And the slower drippers of course work better since the water comes out slow enough to actually be absorbed instead of running off.

You may need to play around with different flow rates for the drippers while you are getting to know what your plants need. They are typically color coded red, green and black.

I'm sure there are some hints you need about how to deal with drip irrigation and freezes/snow... which I know nothing about!

Sometimes I reach out to the CA state university extensions and master gardeners when I have questions... so I just did a quick search for you in MI and found this... http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/soil_type_influences_irrigation_strategy

It's helpful general info about MI clay vs sandy soil and drip irrigation. :-)

Side note...Your hands will ache if you're doing it yourself, but it is nice to work with your hands! I have always done my own. I like being handy. But the little muscles in your fingers will be quite sore if you have a lot to do. Take breaks. :-)