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Betty’s Pond A tribute to love


Photos by Veronica Sliva.


Dennis turner built this elaborate pond in memory of his wife, Betty Clara Turner. W “I think she’d be proud of the result,” Dennis says.


hat does a man do when the love of his life leaves him for another realm way before her


time? Dennis Turner built a pond – not just


any run-of-the-mill pond, but a seri- ous backyard water feature that reflects his love and dedication to Betty, the woman he married as a mere slip of a girl back in 1956. The pond fills, almost overflows, the


back yard which was formerly a bit of a forlorn space, occupied by dead and dying grass and the scattered remains of a former small water feature, a long- gone dream. Now the yard is teeming with life –


Unassuming view from the street. localgardener.net


koi in the water, birds dipping here and there,


small animals and amphibians finding a safe home. There is a brick


wall at the back that creates a private little world, a secret garden with its own microclimate; judging from the front street, you would never know it was here. However, if you should take a detour to the back, windows built into the wall allow a safe peek by youngsters and neighbours Music from the six waterfalls creates


a white noise to shut out the world beyond the garden. The waterfalls are constructed so that water is allowed to cascade over natural rock down three levels from the place where its comes slipping, sometimes bubbling, from mysterious unseen sources. In other places it seeps and trickles to the pond below. The rock that forms the waterfalls and colonizes the beaches is weathered


Beautiful Gardens 2014 • 13


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