I use the hoselock system. It relatively inexpensive if you set a decent starter kit and it does work quite well. I started with my back garden then added the front. And now i have one in my allotment with the water coming from a butt that is filled from a 12 volt submersible pump dropped in the burn and powered from an old leisure battery and charged with a cheapy solar panel. I have gone a little OTT i know but i hate going away for a long weekend and coming back to all my hard work looking withered.
I do like how easy it is to switch from "drippers" to "spray heads" in the same ring and the timer i have does a dawn and dusk water that can be changed from 10,20,30 minutes at each interval. I started with the easy drip universal set and went from there. I would advise getting a piece of paper then drawing what you want it to look like, as i ended up with way to many parts for what i needed.