Miles of weeds have swallowed haha

[Penners]

I've never used Roundup on brambles, but I have found that it's not terribly effective on nettles and woody stuff. SBK Brushwood Killer may be more effective for your job.

http://www.vitax.co.uk/index.php/area/home-garden/weed-disease-control/sbk-brushwood-killer-2/

 

[skier-hughes]

roundup gold concentrate certainly does it, I use it.

 

[Penners]

In which case, given Graham's experience, I would definitely use the Roundup. Being a glyphosate it has no residual effect and is neutralised on contact with the soil. So there's no long-term pollution.

Joce - make sure you spray it on to the young, growing leaves - no point in dosing the soil.

 

[worms]

Would a flame gun do it?

 

[skier-hughes]

I thought about a flame gun, but you'd need a decent parafin one. These cost about £150. If the weather has been very dry for a while I'd be afraid of causing a raging fire with 800sq m to destroy.
If you wanted to keep any grass you could try grazon 90, which kills weeds but doesn't kill grass.

 

[robgil]

Errrm , whats a haha? I though you had gone mental for a bit there. Is a haha a real thing?

 

[Feltwell]

Yes, it's real. If you wanted a nice uninterrupted view from your stately pile over your land, but you wanted to stop the cows from trampling over the croquet lawn, you'd build a haha. It's basically a ditch with a wall built in it on the side nearest the house - so when you look from the house the angle means you can't see it at all, but any livestock that wanders into the ditch can't climb up the wall but can wander back out of the ditch.

Same job as a fence but considerably more expensive to put in, all so the vista is not spoilt.

 

[robgil]

Ah right , Im not up on my boundary law but from memory it could be argued that the wall belongs to the field , as does the ditch. I remember reading that when doing research on boundaries and fencing.
Had the wall been on your side of the ditch then it would most likely have been your responsibility.
Dont take any of that as gospel though, its from memory and my poor old shot memory is a bit like a tetly tea bag.

Edit - its your field as well , isnt it?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The wall is on the house side of the ditch - this diagram might explain better:

But some of the field belongs to Joce, and some to the neighbour (thanks to the land carve-up of which we've heard a bit before)

 

[robgil]

Ah , I see. They could have come up with a better name for it than a haha surely.
Perhaps it was a case of ''what shall we call that then''? silence, then , ''Aha ha'' was the reply from a drunk father Jack type colleague.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

No, "ha-ha!" was what you said when you found it unexpectedly. Or when your guests fell into it.

 

[Nigel Watts]

This, according to Collins Dictionary, is the origin of the word:

a wall or other boundary marker that is set in a ditch so as not to interrupt the landscape

[C18: from French haha, probably based on ha! ejaculation denoting surprise]

What was it you said that people got up to in the lane?

 

[citizensmith]

[C18: from French haha, probably based on ha! ejaculation denoting surprise]

Perhaps all ha ha's should have the following warning sign "ha ha - danger of ejaculation!" :lol:

 

[Juju]

I always refer to Patrick Taylor's 'Oxford Companion to the Garden' for definitions:

'The earliest known use of a ha-ha in England is at Levens Hall where the Frenchman Guillaume Beaumont worked in the late 17th century. It is described in a letter that remains at the house, dated April 1695, as 'the ditch behind the garden' and is still in place. In Egnland from William Kent onwards, the ha-ha became a vital part of the landscape garden, allowing views of of the park without permitting grazing animals to escape. The term, however, is French in origin and had originally a slightly different meaning, being another term for claire voyee. It became the practice in France to have an opening in a wall with a ditch beyond it known as a saut de loup [...] By the end of the 18th century ha-ha had the same meaning in both France and England.'

And Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall in her book (The Garden: An English Love Affair) quotes the translation of a French book on gardening from 1709 which said:

'At present we frequently make through views, called Ah, Ah, which are openings in the walls, without grilles, to the very level of the walks, with a large and deep ditch at the foot of them, lined on both sides to sustain the earth, and prevent the animals getting over, which surprises the eye upon coming near it, and makes one cry Ah! Ah! from whence it takes its name'

I wondered about ownership too but given that Joce's house is the only house around it must have been built by a previous owner of her house plus its position is like a retaining wall - and retaining walls are nearly always owned by the garden they hold up (I looked into this in detail as our garden is held up by a retaining wall).

Juju

 

[LadyArowana]

It seems that it might not be an effective structure for keeping lions out of the garden. Maybe one of Mr P's patent remedies is called for..... I know he has had considerable success against leopards and elephants.

 

[MdB]

According to Terry Pratchett, if you get your haha designed by Bergholt Stuttley "Bloody Stupid" Johnson to a depth of 50ft rather than 5ft then this is called a hoho.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: and many thanks for all the lovely responses. Juju, fascinating stuff. I didn't know the origin of the name, but can vouch for the cursing involved in scrambling over.

The haha was certainly listed on the sales particulars and any haha stealing loons will be sorely disappointed if they labour under the illusion it's theirs. As Gareth kindly pointed out it's only the right edge of it that's under threat currently, where the land is parcelled up, the bit we didn't buy.

Of course, as an estate house the house, the haha, and the fields all belonged to the Ryders at one point.

Not sure about setting fire to the weeds. The flames would lick past the soakaway tank thingy, there might be a huge explosion of gas? I've started some hedgerow bottom fires here, inadvertently - they can quickly get out of control.

I think spraying off is the answer, although yesterday I diluted my Roundup in a watering can and only managed 6 watering cans in an hour as it's a long way from the tap. I only did around 5 sq metres. No idea if was using too much or too little product but if I only manage 5 sq metres a day it will take me 160 days, by which time the weeds may have grown again.

 

[MdB]

Make sure you put it on new growth. The effect on last years growth will be less. It may be worth waiting a while for the start of new growth if this hasn't happened yet.

 

[Penners]

Errrm , whats a haha? I though you had gone mental for a bit there. Is a haha a real thing?

 

[robgil]

aHA! Thank you Penners. A fine example of a Haha too, could it be that Haha is a collective term , the singular being a Hehe? Wasnt there a band from Norway at one time called Ahaha?

What do you call a Norwegian Haha that sings? Ahaha.
Hehe.