Effective watering without a garden hose

I live in an apartment (one house, levels are separate), and I do not have an out door water spigot. In this heat wave, my garden is dying by inches, and my flower beds are not doing much better. With the temperatures in the upper 90's low 100's, I'm having to water everyday. My watering can is only 1 1/2 gallons, and lugging it up and down a flight of stairs 10-20 times a day consumes a large amount of time.

Here is what I've done already to alleviate my problems:
At the start of the year, I anticipated, and about 1/2 to 2/3's of my flower beds are composed of drought tolerant plants
There are a few plants that sit by themselves and I use a two liter pop bottle to drip irrigate.

What are my options for more effective, less time consuming watering techniques that do not involve a water hose or altering the guttering of the house (i.e. adding a rain barrel)?

These help....
http://www.gardeners.com/Terra-Sorb-Drought-Proofing-Crystals/Watering_Cat,14091,default,cp.html

Malfist, my husband and I take care of the gardens at our church and watering is very hard. This year I used water crystals in one of the beds to see if it helped. The results have been amazing. We have had record heat and dryness, but the bed with the crystals looks perfect, and the plants would normally be the first to wilt (coleus). We've had to water the others several times a week while all but ignoring the test bed. I will be using the crystals in all the beds next year.

I've got crystals before, from Hong Kong. I didn't think they would do very well mixed in with the soil, I've got a basil plant doing lovely in some (without soil). I may try that, but it would have to be next year, I don't want to dig everything thing up.

How much do you mix per square foot and how deep?

Is there anything I can do this year?

I don't know if you could find one that would stretch far enough, but they sell little hoses that you can hook up to a faucet in your house. The water doesn't come out as fast as with a regular hose but it would certainly be easier than lugging watering cans around. I can't recall where exactly I got mine, but it was one of the mail order garden supply places--maybe Gardeners' Supply but I'm not sure. There are also adapters you can buy that would let you hook up a regular garden hose to your sink http://www.wikihow.com/Attach-a-Garden-Hose-to-a-Kitchen-Faucet

We just scratched a pinch in the bottom of the hole as we planted annuals. I'll use a bit more with larger plants.

Come to think of it, our utility room is not far from the kitchen, it has a spigot there, if I got a 100' or so water hose, I could run it out of the unity room (which is converted into a green house, I'm using my parents washer and dryer :D).

They also sell connectors that enable you to hook any water hose to your kitchen sink..

Another thought, touching on the one flowerjen mentioned.... "Terra-Sorb Crystals" I recently read that you can tear out the lining of disposable baby diapers and put them in the gound or pots before planting.. - it is along the same basic idea.