How do you water?

[vfem]

I use soaker hoses attached to a rain barrel for my garden as well as my flowerbeds. Works great! I open the hose bib when I want to water and let them run for a few hours off the barrels and then close then when I am done to let the barrels refill the next time it rains.

Now, I like this idea. I don't want to have to run lines from the house or lines with a pump from the pond to get a drip system going. I've been thinking a rain barrel would be awesome... but wasn't sure about how well it would gather rain out in my garden in the center of the yard. Its easily 150-200 ft from the house and we have no gutters (as of yet) to catch the rain and traffic it to a barrel. How do you set up yours? I'd love to have a drip system in my raised beds as I'm watering from hand right now. I'm fine with it now, but we get hot dry summers and I want to be sparing with water and my time in the garden everyday. I want to spend more time harvesting and getting my hands dirty rather then standing there like an idiot with a hose in my hand every morning.

(Pictures would be AWESOME!!!)