Derek Calloway — Birmingham, Alabama, USA Retired Electrician & Weekend Gardener
You’d think a retired electrician would have the whole home improvement thing figured out. And sure, I knew wiring better than most people will ever need to. But gardening? Growing food? That was completely foreign territory to me.
My wife passed four years ago, and she was the one with the green thumb. After she was gone, I let the backyard go — and I mean really let it go. Two years of neglect will humble a garden quick.
Last spring, I decided I was going to take it back. Not just maintain it, but actually grow something. Tomatoes, peppers, maybe some sweet potatoes. Something I could eat. Something that would give me a reason to go out there every morning.
Problem was, I didn’t know where to start. The soil was compacted, patchy, and honestly looked like it had given up on life right along with me.
My grandson showed me Handy Home Men on his phone, and I started reading Remi’s guide on soil preparation and composting for beginners.
What I appreciated — and I want to be specific here because this matters — was that he didn’t assume you knew anything, but he also didn’t talk down to you. There’s a difference, and most gardening content gets that wrong in one direction or the other.
He explained the science of soil health in a way that actually clicked for a practical, technical-minded guy like me. I understood immediately why my soil was failing and what it needed.
I built a simple compost system from instructions on the site, amended my beds the way he recommended, and planted in late April. By July, I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with. Gave bags of them to my neighbors. Grew four varieties of peppers.
Even the sweet potatoes came through, which I genuinely didn’t expect given that I was starting from such dead soil.
I’m 48 years old and gardening turned out to be the thing that got me out of a grief hole I didn’t fully realize I was in. Remi’s content was the starting point for that. Simple as that.