Like a Little Free Library, but for plants
Hathaway got the idea for the free plant box while travelling to an art class in the city’s Mount Airy neighborhood. His bus was detoured, so he walked a different route than usual and came across a little library.
“Then I walked by another one and then a third one, and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is cool. What can I do that’ll be a little different?’” he said. “There’s nothing like it in the Northeast [section of Philadelphia]. If I walk around the neighborhood, nobody’s giving anything away.”
At the time, Hathaway’s basement was full of 50 small oxalis plants — propagations from another gift from his mother. So he decided to give them away.
He built the box using a little library kit. His niece helped him paint it yellow with flowers, a bumblebee and a picture of Pikachu. “What’s cooler than Pikachu?” Hathaway said.
The box is located on the edge of a small garden where Hathaway has grown pepino melons, chickpeas, sunchokes, green beans and cabbage since an eye condition that affects his vision forced him to retire early a few years ago from a career in packaging printing. The box is also a geocache.
“I just want to have a little fun, a little whimsy,” he said. “You know what I mean? Let’s have a little whimsy.”