Large Estate Yard Ideas

This estate landscape is by far the largest one we've ever created. It also has to be one of the biggest challenges we've ever taken on. When we took on the project, it had already been started by one of our competitors who was on his way out of business. However, that didn't make it any easier. It's usually harder to pick up where someone else left off than it is to start an entirely new landscape design.

The only thing that had been completed was the large estate house, part of the driveway area, and the brick pillar and wrought iron fence. There was nothing else but farm field.

More About This Design

The first thing we wanted to do with such a big yard was to unify the entire area into one unit. The home is made of brick as well as the pillar fence. However, they seemed as seperate units that had nothing tying them together. So we created a brick row around all of the concrete driveway and walkway areas. This in itself tied everything together as one unit.

Another element that we used to give unity and tie everything together is the Mondale Pines which are the large dark colored plants in this design. You can learn more about unity, balance, and repetition at The Principles Of Landscape Design page.

Then there was an issue of proportion in the sense that this big two story home dwarfed everything that surrounded it. So we placed the three majestic multi-trunk Red Oaks in the triangle shaped lawn area. This made a huge difference in the sense that now the house wasn't the only big element in the entire landscape. And now the rest of the task of plant choices wasn't so dependent on the size of the plants we would use. These three trees were the most expensive planting element that we used in the entire landscaping project. They were worth every penny for what they accomplished.

I'm not going to go into great detail about plant selection in this design as this drawing is not exactly how this thing ended up. However, I will point out, and as you can see in this design, that we do use the same plantings repeatedly throughout most of this and all of our landscaping ideas. This helps to create unity, consistency, and balance. Pick a few elements and repeat them throughout the design. I will also point out that almost all the plants used in this estate landscaping project are evergreen. There's no lack of color or Winter interest in this yard.

Because there is so much of it, the groundcover rock is inexpensive crushed 1 inch limestone that we get locally. It is underlain with good professional quality landscape fabric. We never skimp on this step as we don't like to go back and warranty a project that is overrun by weeds coming through the groundcover.

The lawn area is, believe it or not, a hybrid Buffalo grass lawn that we installed in plugs. 8000 plugs to be exact. This lawn is drought tollerant and grown in so tight now that not even the most aggressive weeds or Bermuda grass can even get a foothold in it. It is absolutely beautiful. And of course the entire lawn area and planting beds have an automated sprinkler system.

So now let's look more in detail at the backyard plan and pool area designs.

When you're done looking at this big estate project, don't forget to take in the rest of our projects at The Landscaping Ideas Gallery which has a few more large and bigger design ideas as well as some examples that will work well in an estate like this.