Invisible Boundary

There is often no need for a huge barrier to keep people or livestock in or out. A narrow piece of red tape stretched between posts keeps horses in a field, a kerb raised just a few inches keeps people on the pavement and cars on the street. A Ha-Ha will keep farm animals from straying into your beautiful new garden. There’s a horizontal line just behind the urn in the header photo above. That’s the Ha-Ha. Here’s the official description on a sign at Levens Hall in Cumbria, England.

Ha-Ha-Description

And here’s the ditch… you have to look carefully at the turf to see it. The good quality lawn in the foreground ends in a diagonal line. That’s the ditch. The ground behind is a metre or so lower. From a distance you wouldn’t know there was any boundary there at all.

Levens-Ha-Ha

Love GillianI’m joining in with the Daily Post Photo Challenge today which is Boundaries.

Could you use a Ha-Ha in your garden?
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. Gillian

23 thoughts on “Invisible Boundary

  1. I can’t imagine that the ditch would stop animalsโ€ฆ It must be a very steeply pitched, either that or the animals aren’t all that motivated! ๐Ÿ˜‰

    1. Yes it does stop cattle and sheep. Probably not deer or anything that can leap though. In the parkland the ground slopes gradually towards the Ha-Ha then there is a vertical stone wall topped with turf.

      1. It’s a very clever device to make large gardens look even bigger. I’m still wondering about the cows! ๐Ÿ™‚

    2. Think sometimes with a ha-ha, the view from the outside into the garden shows you more of how it works. It’s not really meant to be seen from the garden out. The idea being quite similar to the borrowed landscape in Japanese gardens

      1. Yes that’s the general idea… it’s there but you could easily miss it. I’m quite intrepid but didn’t jump into the park to take a picture in case I couldn’t get back into the garden. Unlike a deer I’m not that great at leaping. Ha ha.

      2. Thank you. As you said, I’m sure a different angled shot would make it clearer.We don’t have them on this side of the pond. ๐Ÿ™‚ Here in New England, we had miles of stone walls, as the retreating glaciers left tons of rocks in the soil, which had to be moved to plant fields.

  2. Such a British term, the Ha Ha. I first read about it in one of Jane Austin’s novels (can’t remember which). I love it! Nice post!

    1. That’s it exactly Ella. Then they can approach/stand at the view pint and look around at all the land they own (which goes on for acres) without anything blocking the view.

  3. I don’t think a Ha-Ha would stop the badgers and foxes from their nightly rounds, shame because they both leave unpleasant reminders of their patrols …. The only things that stops deer here are 6′ fences or enclosed spaces, until we installed double gates and so ‘air-locked’ the entrances they’d sail right over the top of the original 5 bar gates. It was quite a sight! A nice topic, boundaries, I enjoyed your post.

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