Drip Irrigation

 Does anyone out there use a drip irrigation system? My mom uses some drip hoses or soaker hoses to water her flower garden all over the back yard, but does this count as drip irrigation?  My mom has these hoses that she has run all over the yard at the base of her plants.  She turns the water on and the hose gets soaked all long the its length.  The moister is then soaked up by the soil and then of course to the roots of the plants.

The reason she uses this is because

1. It saves water by delivering the moister directly to the root area of the plant
2. It saves the plants from getting burned by having water on their leaves
3. It saves time because she can turn it on and walk away without having to stand there and water the plants herself. 

She has been using the soaker hoses for about two years now and she is really happy with them.  She can move them around if she rearranges her garden and  she uses adapters that allow her to hook up multiple hoses in the front yard an back.  One problem that she has had is that the hoses don't always deliver consistent water their entire length.  The parts of the hose which are closer to the water source get wetter, and the plants at the end of the hose furthest from the water source don't get as much.

So my question is if she gets more permanent drip irrigation supplies will it work better?  It seems like it would.  I'm also wondering if they will be easy to move around.  They surely can't be as easy and flopping a hose to the other side of the garden, but are they permanent?  Also, are their kinds of drip irrigation systems that go underground?  I'm sure those are more permanent, but I was just curious. I also wonder if there is a way to put plant fertilizer directly into the drip irrigation system.  It seems like there should be.

I suppose if you really wanted to get fancy with it, you could set your drip irrigation system up with fertilizer or plant food and then set it on a timer so that you really don't have to worry about it.  Sometimes my mom forgets to turn off her soaker hose.  It hasn't ever drowned any plants, and since it's a soaker hose, it doesn't really use up too much water, which is the reason she got it in the first place.  If you had everything set on an automatic timer though, that would be even easier.