soaker hose

I am preparing to plant about 50 shrubs (burning bush, lilacs, forsythia, skip laurels, raspberry, blueberry) along the side of our lot, and it's on quite a bit of a hill. Garden is maybe 20 feet deep x 150 feet long, so it would be great to just buy three 150' soaker hoses and run them down the hill between the three rows of plantings... but anyone who's read anything on soaker hoses has likely read they can't be laid down a hill.

Looks like the recommendation is to lay them parallel to the hill, so each soaker is level. That means numerous 20' runs for me, all fed by some common irrigation line. Not exactly rocket science, but I've not done it before. I'm looking for recommendations on specifically what to buy, to make this happen quick and cheap. It will be used for this summer, maybe a bit next summer, but I have no use for the system beyond that. I'll likely box it up at the end of this season, and save it for some day when I need such a system again, but have no immediate need for it beyond this project

I also planted 42 new Norway Spruce across the back of our lot two months ago, in a lower, shadier area with often moist soil. I'll need to think about watering them as well, at some point before the July heat and drought roll in. They're planted on level ground (no hill), but spanning a space of more than 300 feet. Since both systems will be needed at the same time (July/August), I'm guessing there's no chance to share them. I should have considered planting all this stuff in two consecutive years, but circumstances forced me to get both done this year.

re: sprinkler: These shrubs are being planted right in front of a natural hedge row, full of various weeds, ivys, etc. They grow in the summer, and die back each winter. I do some minimal maintenance, to keep the poison ivy and aggressive vines at bay, but not much more. In any case, a sprinkler will do just as good a job at watering the undesirable as it does with my new shrubs, and I don't want to help those weeds any more than I have to.

re: drip irrigation: I had considered this, but then figured the time to research and assemble would likely be more than a simple soaker hose solution. Am I wrong? Looking for something I can buy today, assemble tomorrow, and then put to use. The goal is something where I can run outside before breakfast each day, turn on my little hose bib timer, and let it do its job.

I figure I'll be draining it and boxing it up when the fall rains start.

I see the soaker hose is sold in many diameters, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8... and that was going to be one of my questions... which diameter to use, and should the irrigation line be matched to the soaker diameter? I'm assuming those cheap barbed tees are easier to find in 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/2" than in 1/2" x 1/2" x 3/8".

Good ideas! I'll have to get out a measuring tape and my little pocket transit to estimate the drop, but off the top of my head, we're talking about maybe 20 feet drop over 150 foot run.

My original concept was to do as brian89gp suggested, a vertical run of irrigation hose, with horizontal runs of soaker teed off of it. Maybe it's all overkill, though. We get hot and dry in July and August. Actually, it's already getting sort of dry, but we have some rain today. Highs will be 90F each day in the second half of this week. Under those conditions, I had always assumed daily watering of new plantings was necessary, and that I could back off when things cooled off mid- to late-August.

One thing I find written, which most seem to ignore, is that you must run a line filter on the inlet to the soaker. If your well pressure is much over 50 PSI, you should be running a regulator, as well. Seems most of the advice against them (clogging and blow-outs) could be simply avoided by following the manufacturer's instructions on using these two devices.

That said, I've made a decision to not do anything until the shrubs are in, and I can gauge how much watering I really need to do. No sense in coming up with a solution that's more work than the problem itself.