I think the best thing you can do is to talk to people in your area who also practice flood irrigation regarding the in-ground versus raised bed question. In the southwest, waffle beds were often used and you may be able to combine that with some hugelkultur to get good results. My climate is not as warm as yours but it is dry. I am on 5 acres but do not use flood irrigation. I have sunken beds that are lined with wire. When the sunken bed fills up, the excess water flows off to another area where it is trapped by another sunken bed or berm and on and on. Some of my beds are not lined with wire and for those I am vigilant about keeping an eye out for gopher mounds and then we trap them. For rabbits, the best defense I have found is a fence around the perimeter with hardware cloth dug into the ground 8 inches. For the ground squirrels, we have used a trap and a pellet gun and some have been picked off by the local hawks. Raised beds will not deter rabbits unless they are very raised and even then, the squirrels could likely get into them. How much you invest into that will depend on how much damage they cause. Also, anything we plant that is perennial (berry vines, fruit trees, etc) are always planted inside a wire cage, just in case we do not notice the gopher activity in time.

Irrigation system such as you want results from choosing the correct fittings (such as elbow) and putting the system together piece by piece. Some people start with a kit to get the hang of doing it. Lots of info at the link (below) Here is a link that might be useful: create drip system

Can you just raise it? I actually would consider moving it, do you want to be reaching into cactus or digging up the bed if you have to do repairs? It's fairly easy to move them and since you are going to have that area dug up do it now. Tally HO!

So we live near lake Ontario (NY state) and get plentiful rain here so no one has sprinkler systems (like we had when we lived in Colorado). But I also want to add to my in ground and raised beds by adding several containers to grow some additional veggies in. I'm very familiar with the ingrown water sprinkler systems. But I think that I will need to do the method that basically attaches to an outside water faucet with a timer, backflow devise, and then T-off the 1/2 inch pvc to a 1/2 inch PVC on the ground and then pop holes into the 1/2 inch and instal 1/4 inch flexible piping with the type of micro sprinkler or drip emitter that will irrigate the plants. With that said, does anyone have any recommendations on where to buy the supplies (kit perhaps) for JUST the apparatus leading from the spigot to the back flow to the filter?? to other items before you get to the T for the 1/2 inch pvc? Are there online companies that could assist me in shipping the correct supplies? Thanks!!