Pat Chung’s Manoa garden serves as her medicine cabinet. The harvest includes turmeric root, which she uses to make tea to ease her rheumatoid arthritis. She also steeps the leaves from her neem tree to treat her grandson’s eczema.

An abundance of other fruits and vegetables provides vital nutrients to keep both Chung and her husband, Ed, healthy.

After retiring from real estate in 2006, Chung had more time to devote to her garden. Her husband built her a 10-by-14-foot raised bed to get her started.

“I have farming in my blood with ancestors from Busan, Korea, and Fresno, Calif.,” she said. They include Korean immigrants who worked on sugar plantations on Kauai.

Chung, who has three children and seven grandkids, grew up in Kalihi where everyone had mango and papaya trees. “My mother always had stuff growing, and everyone shared,” she said.

Her gardening efforts were put on hold when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2009. She finished her treatments in March 2010.

“The light at the end of my tunnel was that empty garden space waiting for me to be strong enough to start working on,” Chung said.

Her health issues underscored the importance of a healthful diet, but Chung said she also discovered the benefits to be had from working in her garden, as her strength steadily improved. She said it was challenging to find level areas on the hilly terrain and that the clay soil was crumbly.

“Amending the soil was a full-time job,” she said. “I worked hours on end prepping that soil.”

It paid off: Bittermelon, Okinawan sweet potato, kale, cantaloupe, Manoa lettuce, eggplant, asparagus, tomatoes and Swiss chard grow in assorted plots. An aquaponics setup with tilapia and koi nourishes watercress, and papaya and guava trees also grace the property.

She uses the broad, heart-shaped leaves from a small plot of dryland taro for cooking, and her yuzu lemon tree has produced more than 100 fruit. Chung gets most of her seeds from the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

In addition to serving as a source of nutritional and medicinal plants, the Chungs’ garden provides an aesthetically pleasing setting for the couple. A bench under an avocado tree beckons them to rest in the shade, and there are other seating areas where they can enjoy the lush surroundings while eating freshly harvested fruits and vegetables.

So appealing is their garden, it was a stop on this past summer’s Malama Manoa garden tour.

“Garden Party” spotlights Hawaii’s unique and exceptional gardens. Call 529-4808 or email features@staradvertiser.com.