I tried that. I have fairly clay-ey soil that hadn't been amended in a long while. So it didn't work so great for me. I stopped after a couple months. This year, I'm just going to lay it on top of the dirt with mulch over it.

I hope yours works better!

Our small city is build on sand and people here have good luck with buried watering devices. As someone noted above they had difficulty with clay soils. Is there someway to determine if it will work with trying it? I doubt it.

I have a double row of plants with the more tempermental and short-lived varieites (i.e veggies) in the front and a grapevine in the back. The hose is already buried in gray clayish soil in between the rows but I think I will wrap the other half of the hose around the front of the veggies and leave it on top and bury it with mulch. Thanks for the recommendations. I will update.

TBT

So. California soil is mostly sand and clay, so I placed soaker hoses on top of the soil and covered them with mulch.
This worked much better than burying them, as the plastic hose rots when buried. My soaker hoses have been on the
ground for 6 years now and all I had to do was put more mulch on them when they became exposed. This solution worked better than anything else I've tried.

I bought my first soaker hose yesterday to meander through my flowers, cannas and banana trees. I buried it underneath the cedar mulch but ontop of the Texas clay soil and from what I've read the hose will water 8-12 inches to either side in water-absorbing clay and save you up to 70% in water costs.

Soaker hoses work best if you lay them on top of the soil and cover them with mulch to keep the sun from eating them up. They also don't work as well on very sandy soil as the water just goes straight down with very little sideways watering. I had them for a couple years but my beds were too wide and sandy for them to work optimally.

Another reason to lay them on top of the soil is so you can see when they spring a leak :)

Well,
Not sure what our soil is, the back yard dates back to the 1910's when the house was built.
Seems to be a lot of gravel and construction debris.
BUT I "planted" a soaker hose 2 years ago - this will be the third summer, and it seems to be ok.
I have a bigger problem in that we have VERY high water pressure here and I have actually burst two garden hoses in 4 years. (no I don't leave them on unless I am working in the yard).
I have a valve to lower the pressure, but its just a simple one. I think I am going to get an actual pressure regulator this summer.
I use the soaker in combination with a drip system for the continers. IT is great. Add in a timer and I don't have to worry about going on vacation!
Good luck!