Large Salt Lake City properties call for a different design approach than a standard residential lot — more square footage to work with means more opportunity, but also a greater risk of a design that looks scattered rather than cohesive if it isn’t planned around the estate as a whole.
Design the Whole Property, Not Isolated Features
The biggest mistake on large estate properties is treating each feature — the garden, the pool area, the entertainment space — as a separate project rather than parts of one connected landscape. A cohesive large-property design establishes sightlines and transitions between zones, so a visitor moving from the entry garden to a back patio experiences a continuous, intentional space rather than a series of disconnected features stitched together.
Gardens That Scale With the Property
On a large lot, a single flower bed reads as an accent; on an estate-sized property, it needs to be part of a larger garden structure to avoid looking sparse against the scale of the home and grounds. Formal garden zones — defined flower beds, ornamental tree plantings, structured pathways — work well on large properties specifically because they establish a sense of order across a big space, with more casual, layered planting used to soften transitions between formal areas.
Water Features as Structural Elements
On a large estate, a water feature does more design work than on a smaller lot — a fountain or pond can anchor an entire section of the property visually, giving the eye a focal point across a wide expanse of lawn or garden. The scale of the water feature should match the scale of the property; an undersized fountain on a large estate can look like an afterthought rather than the anchor it’s meant to be.
Architectural Elements for Structure
Pergolas, arbors, and trellises do more than provide shade on a large property — they break up open space vertically, creating a sense of scale and structure that pure planting alone can’t achieve across a wide lawn or garden area. These elements also define transition points between different zones of the property, marking where a formal garden ends and a more casual outdoor living space begins.
Entertainment Spaces Built for Scale
Large properties can support entertainment areas sized for real gatherings — spacious patios, outdoor kitchens, and pergola-covered seating built to comfortably host more people than a standard residential patio. Positioning these spaces relative to the home’s interior layout (near a kitchen for outdoor cooking, away from bedroom windows for evening entertaining) matters more on a large property, where the outdoor entertainment area often functions as a genuine extension of the home rather than a small supplementary patio.
Sustainable Practices at Estate Scale
Water efficiency matters more, not less, on a large property — a big landscape with inefficient irrigation wastes proportionally more water than a small one. Native and drought-tolerant plantings, zoned irrigation matched to each area’s actual needs, and smart controllers that adjust for weather all reduce both water use and the long-term maintenance burden of a large landscape.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is designing a large Salt Lake City estate different from a standard residential yard?
Scale changes everything — features that work as accents on a small lot need to function as structural elements on a large property, and the whole property needs to be designed as one connected space rather than isolated features.
Should a large property be designed all at once or in phases?
Phasing is common and practical for large properties — the key is establishing the overall design plan upfront so each phase fits into a cohesive whole, rather than each addition being planned independently.
Do large properties require more water than smaller ones proportionally?
Not necessarily, if designed efficiently — the same water-wise principles (drought-tolerant planting, zoned irrigation, smart controllers) apply at any scale, and inefficiency simply has a bigger absolute impact on a large property.
Millburn Lawn & Landscape designs large-scale landscapes for Salt Lake City estates. Call us to start planning your property as a whole.
