Use water barrels to collect the rain runoff from the house's roof...then either connect a garden hose or an inexpensive DIY drip line (for this, see joannacat's post in this thread).

The drip lines are gravity-fed (stack $1.97 each concrete blocks from Home Depot or Lowe's to make a platform for the rain barrel - the higher the platform, the more pressure and faster the water will flow). Caveat: connecting a garden hose to the rain barrel and then raising the free end above the rain barrel spigot, like to use a spray nozzle, won't work: water won't run uphill! D'Oh!

I have 4 rain barrels (they look like classic Grecian urns - terracotta-colored plastic of course! Big Grin
one buried just beneath the surface for my plants along the back fence
one stretching above the surface for my 40' raised bed on the side (I like watermelons! nodding )
one connected to half a garden hose, to water my containers in front
one connected to the other half of that garden hose, as a back-up for my containers in the front (tomatoes are VERY thirsty! Hilarious! )

Oh, and about that "half a garden hose" even the SHORTEST hose was much too long, leaving trip-hazardous coils: so I bought a male and a female hose end from Amazon, cut that too-long hose in half and made 2 very much short hoses!

I have plans for a third drip line!!! (Watering wastes time I could spend GROWING! Thumbs up )

Do you have any photos? I'm from MO you have to show me

I don't see watering as a waste of time though, I see it as a time to investigate things and lay eyes on each plant and just actually look at them instead of just working!

LOL I grew up in MO! I looked for a picture of my rain barrels, but all I have are pics of my various plants.
Here's a link to where I bought them (Amazon).

Good Ideas RWURN Rain Wizard Rain Barrel Urn 65-Gallon, Terra Cotta
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003UNYQ2M/

As for the drip lines themselves: one is buried year-round and the other is currently in storage (it;s winter after all! )

Watering: first thing I do when I go out to my gardens is do a quick inspection of my plants in the back and side gardens and then turn on one of those drip lines as needed. . . then, while my plants in the back and on the side gardens are being watered, I go tend my vegetable containers in the front . . . using the other 2 rain barrels to top off my Earthboxes (which have 3.5 gallon resevoirs).

It's hot and humid here with mosquitoes and other biting insects,, so I value outside time-saving measures; ALL my plants get a daily inspection and whatever care they need . . . I just don't SOLELY do their watering in addition!!

PS I grow mainly edibles, so admiring the plants is rather pointless: in the kitchen, I admire the harvest!

2020's gardens
watermelons (and some scattered borage plants to attract pollinators) in my raised bed on the side
tomatoes, peppers, beets, carrots, squash, green beans, cucumbers, cilantro in containers in front (I LIKE salsa ..plus it repels aphids from my pepper plants)

Also in front (in a small plot in the ground): marigolds to attract pollinators and repel the moth that lays eggs developing into voracious tomato hornworms


The exception to HUMAN edibles: along the ugly old barbed wire fence (and the neighbors' dilapidated trailer!) in the back, last year I planted a line of dwarf beautyberry plants.. . . hence the drip line. The birds eat the berries in late fall/early winter and the plants (when mature) will HIDE that dang old ugly fence!! (Yep, they all had berries this year!)