Take the Rockery, for instance. Today thanks to the efforts of the town and the Friends of Easton Gardens it is a beautiful landscape in the heart of North Easton. Is it an Olmsted landscape-not quite. Completed in 1883, Mr. Olmsted disowned the site in 1887 because the plants he had provided had all died from neglect only to be replaced by neighborhood volunteers (aka weeds). Worse there doesn't seem to be a planting plan for the site because Olmsted provided the original plants himself. We have three or four suggestions of what was planted in Olmsted's letter and a new planting plan from the Olmsted company that was done after the great man's retirement. We have no real indication of whether that new plan was ever executed. When we repaired the Rockery, we brought in Cynthia Zaitzevsky, the leading Olmsted historian, and Cathy Bradford, a historical landscaper. Working with the new planting plan and the plant list of what actually was planted at Sheep Pasture, we created a landscape using plant that Olmsted might have used at the Rockery or their modern cultivars. Is it an Olmsted landscape? Well, it's been several years and the site hasn't been hit by a lightning bolt or an earthquake so maybe Mr. O, wherever he is, likes it. Below is the earliest close-up photo of the Rockery that we have. You can see the giant flagpole on top. The gaslight is the first style used in town so we believe this photo may actually show the Olmsted planting before many of the plants died. Compare to what is there today-similar feel, not identical-is it an Olmsted landscape?
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