I use soaker hoses zig zagged in the beds and hook the hose to them and let them run unattended until the water has spread out to cover the bed.

To cover the electricals: How about a clematis on a trellis or some other climber that wouldn't cast a shadow.

I have a soaker hose that I use for my big bed, especially for new plants. But, I try to plant stuff that will eventually not need a ton of water once it is established, and then I only rarely need to water the established areas. What I have to be extra careful is to remember when I've planted something new in an established bed that needs extra watering - I've lost a few plants that way.

Also, this year I mulched most of my new stuff with compost, and I'm finding that those areas are holding moisture very well.

What Irene said; me too. Lots of soaker hoses. Lots of mulch.

I do some hand watering for new plantings sometimes, but most things have to try to get by on once a week deep soaking. An hour and a half? I can't get around the whole yard in two days. This is the worst drought I remember, ever.

You know those sprinklers that go back and forth? I disable them so they sprinkle in one place and let them dribble for a long time, or those black soaker hoses with the little holes, cut in half with new fittings on the cut end so they fit particular beds.

If hydrangeas are wilted at the end of a hot day, I wait to see if they're still wilted the next morning. 90% humidity overnight usually perks things up.

Anything that's an eyesore, I don't hide with something up close to it. I stand where I would usually notice the offender and figure out what I can plant between us. My mother in law spent most of her gardening life planting shrubbery up against the cow pen to try to hide it or beautify it. I plant small trees halfway between the house and the tractor shed and don't worry about it.

My rule is, anything unpleasant needs something attractive nearby to draw attention away, not something that doesn't quite hide it and draws your eye to it.

Nell

My way wouldn't be of any help to anyone where it's really hot as you would lose a lot from evaporation before it hit the ground. I have in several parts of the garden mounted decorative copper sprinklers 3 to 4' high, these have permanent lengths of hose attached to them long enough to reach the path.
All my taps, hoses, nozzles, wands and sprinklers have snap on fittings, It's much easier this way for me to move the hose from one place to another. While a sprinkler is going in one part of the garden I can be hand watering either by watering can or with the wand and sometimes another sprinkler in another part of the garden. I can have several things going at once as we have good water pressure where we are. In fact it's high enough to blow out the hose if you shut it off at the nozzle.

Annette

I mostly water by hand. It does take a lot of time but that's my "me time" and I enjoy it. I only do it once a week if there's no rain. Most plants in my area will get by fine on a half inch per week. I also mulch everything which makes a world of difference when it's 118 F. and there has been no rain in months...which happens here quite frequently.

I don't try to hide eyesores. Around here I'd need a thirty foot high privacy fence surrounding the house to hide everything that I don't like looking at. Instead, I'm more like Nell, who plants things to draw the eye to a more pleasing site.

MeMo

Watering by hand is enjoyable here only in the spring when humidity is low. This time of year you're dripping wet with sweat by the time you pull out the hose and position the sprinkler, but that's the only way to go if you don't have an inground system, which we don't. I've been watering since about 4 this afternoon, moving the sprinkler about every 30-40 minutes depending on area being watered. Even the veggie garden gets watered that way this late in the season.

Dh has everything outfitted with the snap-on fittings Annette mentioned. Definitely makes the process easier.

Fnboyd, you are in my zone...what's your soil like? I have sand...extremely good drainage - INSANELY good drainage! It is very hard to keep things watered. I find that the rule doesn't apply here...you know, "water seldom but deep". Nah. Not here. Things dry out in minutes, not hours or days. When it doesn't rain - and that has happened a LOT lately -(THANK GOODNESS for the rain this week - it has been heavenly!) - we water a lot. We simply have to water often but not a lot. Otherwise, I think we are really watering gardens in China.

I am especially glad that we use well water. We are too far out in the country to have access to city (metered) water. So we can water as much as we like...bearing in mind that our well went dry last year (for 4 and a half months!!) and we had to have a new one drilled $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

We are having wonderful results from soaker hoses buried along the rows in the vegetable garden. They water the roots of the veggies only - we only get weeds in the garden when it rains! I have some in my flower gardens but they don't work so well because the water doesn't spread out horizontally in this sand...it drains straight down. So you can only water about an inch on either side of the hose. Not good.

We use a very low tech sprinkler - heavy, made of metal, it screws onto the end of the hose, dial for various configurations...it works and is pretty indestructible. Just set a timer and do a bit at a time. Dh actually has a couple of auto timers on the hoses out back so that he can set them to water for 30 or 45 minutes or whatever and they turn the water off afterward (he's a gadget guy) but otherwise just listen for the beep and go turn it off or move it.

I second the quick connect....makes garden life WAY better...

Thanks for all the responses.

Linda, I have clay soil. It holds moisture longer than sand but is very hard to garden. Hard as cement when dry and sticky when wet.

I have to get more soaker hoses. How long do you leave your soaker hoses running?

I understand that deep watering (as opposed to light and shallow watering) your plants and having long periods in between watering helps. This trains your plants to gets their roots reaching deep underground and more able to withstand long periods between watering.

Ianna

fnboyd, you might want to do a few experiments - try measuring how deep the water goes per half hour. Everybody has different soil. And I have gardened in red Georgia clay (eek) as well as southern California black adobe (worse, if possible). All these soil types have special requirements and the sooner you learn what works in your patch, the better.

As I mentioned, watering for a long time in our sand doesn't help - the water drains right past the roots and is lost. We just have to keep splashing smaller amounts of water more often. It DOES go deep...because of the drainage.

I can't recommend soil amendment too strongly - we add massive amounts of organic material here. And you should, too. It's different soil types but the same solution. Thank goodness we have found a horse farm that is only too glad to get rid of the stall clean-out. For free!! We compost it and pitch it everywhere. Otherwise, I don't know if we could raise anything but cactus.

Drip irrigation on timers attached to the faucets (battery operated). Good soil. Good mulch (until plants are established and covering the bare ground).

I have a few places that I hand water, but those are drought-tolerant plants so I don't water unless we have a full week of 90+ degree weather without rain.

BTW, we are on a well.

I have to hand water my potted plants more frequently, sometimes everyday in the really hot times of the summer.

I live near Bham. Several years (2000?) ago when we were under severe drought restrictions, I took the water from my washing machine, routed it to a garbage can (with no holes) and watered my azaleas to keep them alive. You can get a large, 40gallon can of water TWICE from a large load. You just have to pay attention to the timing and be there to stop it midway to get the water emptied for the next draining.

It was easy in the last house since the w/d was in the basement and the hose was located on garage side of wall. I can't do anything here other than get water from the lake if it gets really bad. I'd love to have a well during times like this.