I don't have sandy soil so I'm different than you. Sand calls for lots of compost, humus, compost, clay, and compost of you can get it. Pike the leaves on in the fall and work that into the ground. Shred them if you can. You'd be surprised how much better that is by springtime. Thinking about it though your spring comes awful early. I'd still do it in the later areas you'll plant.
I tend to water deep when I water. In sand, you might be better off watering less at a time but watering more often.
I strongly second the mulch idea. Mulch heavy and often. That saves a tremendous amount of water plus reduces weeding tremendously.
You have a decision to make. Are you going to go raised bed or some similar system where you always plant the same areas or are you going to come over to the row crop method? That should play into how you water. A sprinkler system where water splashes can knock disease up from your soil to the plant. If you mulch before you sprinkle, probably not a big deal, even if your ground is not disease free to start with. Still you pays your money and takes your chances.
How big are you going? We always advise newby's to not get carried away and bite off more than you can chew the first year. Think about it. With your new toy it's easy to plow up the ground and plant. Weeding, watering, mulching, harvesting, and preserving can take a lot of time.
How expensive and rare is water where you are now? Rain barrels work great when it occasionally rains but mine tend to run dry on a regular basis, especially when I need them. I tend to need them when it doesn't rain. Still, put gutters on buildings, including outbuildings, and get some 55 gallon drums. You'll be glad you did.
Spray systems tend to use a lot of water, both with evaporation losses as well as watering areas that don't need it. But you can water large areas with them. They are relatively fast. If you have some tall crops, say corn or staked tomatoes, it can sometimes be hard to get good coverage. A soaker hose, drip system, or something similar uses less water and puts it where you need it. Dragging hoses is a pain. I can damage plants if I am not careful. If you do drag hoses, I recommend an in-line shutoff valve, available at Lowe's or Home Depot, so you can shut off water where you are instead of having to walk back to the spigot to turn it on and off.
I use three different systems with a spigot and hose. I can never keep an oscillating device oscillating so I get one that you can set up for a spray pattern. I can cover reasonably large areas with those but I have a tendency to overwater. It doesn't take long to soak the ground with those.
I usually put a soaker hose under the mulch, say in a row of tomatoes. I just hook up the hose to that buried hose and water away without wasting any above ground or spraying blight up on the plants. Sometimes I do drag a soaker hose around to cover new rows. It's a pain in the butt but it is effective.
I also use a splitter at times, say when I am watering the blueberry bushes, strawberries, or new trees or bushes. I put the splitter on the end of the hose and attach short hoses, say 15' long to that. Then I lay the ends of those hoses where I want to water. It can get kind of tricky if you are not careful. One hose may put out more water than the other. Those short hoses tend to kink plus of the openings are not at the same elevation the water pressure is different so you don't get even flow. Hopefully that makes sense. I generally have the water cut back so it is just a trickle anyway to give it time to soak in.
From my rain barrels I just use a bucket and carry water.
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I could have cheerfully decapitated him.
