Sixty-seven-year-old John Henry, who is partially sighted, lost his first ‘John’s Patch’ channel after failing a security check during a log-in attempt that relied on sight.
‘They gave me something called a capture and asked me to pick out all the pictures with fire hydrants. Well, given I’m partially sighted, I obviously failed,’ he said.
Despite trying to contest the outcome, he was eventually forced to abandon his attempts to re-access the channel, and launched a new one.
‘It was a bit tough to swallow losing everything,’ he said, a situation worsened by the fact that only a few weeks previously he had suffered vandalism at his gardening plot with soil thrown around, crops ripped up and water left flooding the area.
Yet despite the setbacks, Mr Henry is far from having lost his love of gardening or his passion for vlogging about it.
‘It’s relaxation, it’s purpose and it’s an energiser,’ he said.
He was also uplifted by all those who had helped him to navigate both the vandalism episode and the YouTube fiasco, particularly local man Richard Vahey, who stepped in with a Facebook post to raise awareness and help Mr Henry regain subscribers in the wake of having to launch his new channel.
‘He told people, “make a man’s day”. Bear in mind, I’ve never seen him. I don’t know who he is.,' said Mr Henry.
‘I don’t know where in Guernsey he’s from. And he puts up on Facebook, “you’ve got a chance to make a man happy, and from anyone who subscribes to John’s Patch, I’ll do a draw and I’ll give 25 quid to the winner”.’
Now set up on his new channel with a growing body of subscribers, Mr Henry is back to regularly posting online to share his knowledge and love for all things that grow.
It is a passion he has been nurturing throughout his life ever since his childhood spent growing up on his family’s farm, which lies just across the road from where he lives today.
It was upon retiring and then suffering the health complications that eventually left his vision permanently impacted that the hobby took on a new point of significance in his life.
‘Basically, my world shrank in terms of where I feel absolutely comfortable doing what I do.
‘My safe space is here and at the farm, because I know my surroundings, my tools, and where I put them.’
Despite the joy and comfort gardening brought, the isolating development still left Mr Henry, a self-described people person who spent much of his career working in social care and finding purpose helping others, feeling like something was missing, a matter that starting his YouTube channel “John’s Patch” then helped remedy.
‘I can’t go out, I can’t drive. I thought my days of helping people are over. But actually, I realised I can help people through a camera lens,' he said.
‘I got thinking, I can’t be the only one. I know there’s not many people who don’t see, but there must be a lot of people who suffer with agoraphobia where they don’t like to go outside.’
It’s with such a thought in mind that he hopes those who find his channel not only pick up a few tips and tricks about gardening, but also ‘get a bit of confidence, a lift, find it fills a gap where they can get something out of life when they can’t go outside...if they get that, then that’s success.’
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