Aphids, snails, caterpillars and other crawlies were managed with crushed egg shells thrown on the garden, natural fertilisers from their own composting beds and other plants known to repel crawlies planted judiciously throughout the garden.
They all had a favourite mantra: "Waste not want not" or "Everything has a purpose in life, you just need to find it." These were women in my father's family.
The women in my mother's family were also keen gardeners.
Even into their 80s, my mother Homai and her older sister Te Uira worked their gardens.
They focused primarily on flower gardens while their husbands looked after the fruit trees and the vegetable gardens.
I do recall, however, my father deciding that he was going to specialise in growing standard roses and carnations.
Our whole quarter-acre section was turned into a giant garden.
The flowers were glorious, the carnations in particular were every colour of the rainbow.
After about eight years of specialising in these plants, we had a very late frost in Rotorua and his prize blooms were lost.
"That's it," he said, and promptly turned the gardens into lawn and start collecting stamps.
We called him our very own fanaticist - our own pronunciation of philatelist.
I haven't gardened for years but thought it was time to spruce the outside of the Runanga with living color.
Our very own property team built the boxes and I selected and planted the flowers.
When they grow, I hope children from the neighbourhood come into the Runanga and ask one of our staff to cut some flowers for them to take home to their mums, dads or grandparents.
Many flowers continue to bloom if they are cut regularly.
