Imagine a gracious country estate, overlooking a field of cows..... but it would spoil the view to have a fence between the mansion and the cows. Through history this problem has been solved by creating a "haha." To do this, the lovely lawn comes to an end with a sharp drop-off. This drop-off serves as a wall to keep the cows out, but is invisible from the mansion.
So, how does this work in our neighborhood? In constructing the huge house behind us, they created a level back yard that ends in a drop-off. We do not have cows, but this wall keeps out our dog, etc. And they benefit fully from the view of our mature trees. So our lower yard is the haha, and they do not have to look at a fence.
It is similar to the Japanese gardening idea of borrowing scenery from the hillside behind the garden. We saw this in Kyoto, where many gardens backed onto the hills, or took advantage of the views of hills that were a bit distant.
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