Jason Jayne and Randy Tumber | Tumber & Associates

Woodsy wonderland

Ariel, a lifelike bronze statue, appears to be gazing at the family residence as she cools off in the waterfall that spills over an underground grotto. Below the statue is an imported Italian wood-fired pizza oven.

To camouflage the fact that the neighbor’s house is just 20 feet away, the Tumber team “played with grades, creating six levels for entertaining, and planting up the lot with trees,” Jayne says.

The crew used a blend of deciduous, coniferous, spruce and birch trees, and shrubs of various colors — plus more exotic flora such as two Japanese maples valued at $4,000 each imported from Oregon, and pagoda dogwood shrubs. “The challenge was to squeeze all those elements into a small space,” Jayne says.