How's the lawn? How 'bout the landscape? After my wife and I labored over our previously sparce plant beds (tilling, "re-dirt-ing", mulching, planting, more mulching, more dirt, more plants, etc., etc.) we weren't about to let the sun toast the efforts of our labors.
My solution . . . surface sprinkler system. Not just soaker hoses and rotating heads. Since I don't know the future of my house (we may teardown and rebuild sometime soon), this was a quick solution to a simple problem.
I had an old garden hose which I use to make 5-6' sections of hose using male/female mending couplers. I then bought various sprinkler heads (sprayers, bubblers, rotating, no pop-up type), 2" and 8" PVC nipples, and a hose pass-through with feed spike. HUH?! It's a spike that you can connect a garden hose to and from which you can then screw the nipple into the top of (click on spike for a very crude drawing).
Well, a nine station sprinkler system cost under $50 and took about 30-45 minutes to install. I put in 5 half-circle heads, 2 full-heads, a 1/4 head, and a bubbler. I can turn it all on from my garden faucet since I put a splitter on the faucet. I turn it off from the splitter and hook up my impact sprinkler on the other outlet to water the lawn. Eventually, I'll put a timer on the faucet to increase my level of laze.
Well, this wasn't really a breakthrough find, but it sure did save me time from watering the front of the house. I hope you think it's cool! Your plants'll thank ya!