pressureless drip irrigation?

I rent a slope on which I grow plants from my hybridization of several kinds of plants. Watering is a big effort, except for winter when it rains. There is a pond at the bottom of the slope, and I use a gasoline-fueled pump to fill various containers at the top (bathtubs, garbage cans and such.) I tried siphoning water in a hose, and it does flow, slowly. This only waters one spot. When I used one of those cheap plastic hoses with holes all along, it filled up with water but there was not enough pressure for the water to come out. The occasional drop of water did appear in the holes, but they dried up before they managed to drop onto the soil. So I water my plants by dipping buckets into the containers and carrying them to the plants. There is a slight improvement from before I had the pump - now I don't have to carry the water uphill.

I've searched on Google for information on low pressure irrigation, but all I get is information about how to reduce my water pressure so I don't blow out the drippers. I need to know how to operate with what is essentially NO pressure.
Everything I've read tells about pumping water from a well into a drip system.
I don't want to keep the pump going that length of time. Also, I can't start the pump myself (it has a cord to pull) - my husband has to drive to the farm every time I need to run it. I hope to put in a large water tank if I can manage a siphoning-drip system.

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Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8
cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually)
sandy soil

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