Notice this same thing happens outside of construction, like when a good mechanic hears a noise you stopped hearing weeks ago or a dentist spots something you never felt. People who look at the same thing every day for years catch what everyone else walks past. Finding one sub like Dave is worth more than a dozen cheap ones.

My buddy Dave had a guy chew him out at a tire shop in Perrysburg over a $12 charge, and then the same guy showed up a year later with a box of donuts and said he'd been going through a divorce. Dave said the apology felt good but the donuts did most of the work. Funny how the ones who blow up are sometimes the ones who come back and own it.

Man, people act like draining holes and gravel are some kind of lost secret, but this is just basic container gardening. Every potted plant on earth needs drainage or the roots rot, that's not a trick, that's just how dirt and water work. The gravel part is the one thing I'd push back on, because a lot of folks say it actually makes things worse by raising the water table in the pot, though plenty of gardeners swear by it anyway. If your plants lived, great, but I'd bet the real fix was watering them right and not drowning them, which is what kills most tomato plants in buckets. Not trying to rain on Ruth, she sounds like a good neighbor, I just don't buy that a hot nail and two bucks of rocks is the magic here.