The title - part of the New Zealand Gardener magazine's Gardener of the Year competition - recognises his work with the Sawyers Bay Garden Club over the past 20 years.
Mr Turvey is known throughout Dunedin and Otago for his vegetable and flower seedlings and as a former gardening columnist for the Otago Daily Times.
"This is for the club mainly. I like gardening - always have."
He moved to St Leonards with wife Anne when he retired and cultivated a flower and vegetable garden.
Joining the Sawyers Bay Garden Club gave him an outlet for his competitive streak and helped him make friends, he said.
He had been club president for five years, was a long-serving committee member and a champion club exhibitor of vegetables and flowers.
He organises speakers, conducts the garden club monthly forum and provides seedlings for sale tables.
The club nominated Mr Turvey, saying he always went the "extra mile" for the club and its members.
"Every club should have someone like Dick. Someone passionate about gardening and keen to share their local knowledge and skills developed over years of trial and error."
Mr Turvey is now in the running for Supreme Gardener of the Year, which will be announced later this year.
