Water Conservation Series: Drip Irrigation

Drip Irrigation

As people come to the Comal County Agri-life community garden to look around, one of their most frequently asked questions is about the drip irrigation system used. When the garden first started, there were many different configurations and types of equipment used to irrigate the beds.  After installing and testing thousands of feet of line and hundreds of emitter heads, our irrigation specialist, Richard Vonder Embse found an irrigation system that works for any type of vegetable garden and for all seasons.  Our system even works for raised beds and container gardens.  One of the great things about our irrigation method is that it's simple.  Anyone who has opposing thumbs and the ability to kneel can do it!  Richard will show you how to install a system from the spigot out to the garden.  You do not need special, dedicated water pipes for this.  Bit by bit, fitting by fitting, we install the system components as you watch and learn.  We even get you involved, hands on, to show that YOU CAN DO IT!

Water Conservation Series

This session is part of the Water Conservation Series. These workshops were developed in response to common questions and concerns about various topics related to water conservation, water quality, pollution increases, and ecological issues.  The workshops provide a brief overview (with a chance for questions and answers) for Texas Hill Country residents to better understand where our water comes from and how to protect this important resource. The 10 sessions in this weekly series take place on Mondays from 12:00pm to 1:30pm beginning June 5th and ending August 7th. Feel free to bring your lunch while you learn of ways we all can protect our precious water sources!

Join us for all 10 session in this series or just the sessions that interest you!

• Session 1: June 5 - Aquifers
• Session 2: June 12 - Rain Harvesting
• Session 3: June 19 - Rain Barrels and Wicking Gardens
• Session 4: June 26 - Drip Irrigation
• Session 5: July 3 - Find and Fix Leaks at Home
• Session 6: July 10 - Landscape & Lawn Care in Our Semi-Arid Texas Hill Country
• Session 7: July 17 - Water Conserving Plants; Bees, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds
• Session 8: July 24 - Xeriscape, Rain Gardens, & Prairie Ponds
• Session 9: July 31 - Composting
• Session 10: August 7 - Pruning for Winter and Frost Protection

About the Speaker

This session in the Water Conservation Series is presented by the following speaker:

Richard Vonder Embse
Drip Irrigator Extraordinaire.  
Retired from the Air Force in 1994, and again in 2012 from Federal Civil Service, Richard attended the 2012 Comal Master Gardener class.  He has always loved gardening, practicing it wherever he has lived; Richard especially enjoys vegetable gardening.  He became a co-chair for the AgriLife Extension Office Garden (AEGC) vegetable garden in 2013.  The (AEGC) is the primary demonstration garden for the Comal Master Gardener (CMG) Association and the only garden totally funded by CMG.  The demonstration garden serves two purposes: first, to demonstrate which plants do well in the Texas Hill Country and second, to showcase different ways of creating gardens by incorporating high end items all the way down to cut up cedar logs.  As a side job, Richard installs drip irrigation systems, which he says he “learned by doing—trial & error and a lot of on-the-job-training.”