Author: Phonh
Phonh
I am a gardener turned entrepreneur. I didn't go to business school—I learned by building Dream Garden Resort from scratch with my own hands. Here, I share the real costs, the DIY mistakes, and the lessons learned from the mud up.
When we started building “Dream Garden,” our biggest problem wasn’t the soil quality or the unpredictable tropical weather. It was the emptiness. We had this huge, flat space with cosmos flowers starting to bloom, but something felt off. The landscape looked beautiful, but it didn’t have a “heart.” It was just a sea of green and purple with nowhere for the eye to rest. It needed something that would make people stop walking, take a breath, and actually look. That’s when I decided we needed a focal point. Not just a small garden gnome or a birdbath, but something massive.…
Standing in front of our empty field in early 2023, I felt overwhelmed. My partner and I had just bought the land for Dream Garden, but we had no idea where to start. The space looked flat, boring, and way too big. Worse, our budget was tiny—no money for fancy stone walls or professional landscapers. But here’s what I learned: you don’t need thousands of dollars to create beautiful garden borders. You just need some cheap bricks and a clever geometric trick. This guide will show you exactly how we built hundreds of feet of garden edging for about $50—and…
You can have all the bricks, seeds, and tools in the world, but if you don’t have a map, you’re just making a mess. In my previous guide, I shared how we used cheap bricks to build borders and save money on materials. But before we laid a single brick at Dream Garden, we faced a much harder problem: The Layout. When we stood in front of our empty field in early 2023, it was flat. Boring flat. The kind of flat where you stand at the gate and see everything in one glance. There was no mystery, no charm,…
People always stop and stare when they first see Dream Garden. They pull out their phones, snap photos of the pink heart sculpture, and walk slowly across the floating bridge that stretches over flowers and grass. Then they turn to me and ask: “Who designed this place? Which company built it?” They are usually expecting me to mention some fancy architect or wealthy investor. But the truth? I built it myself. With my own hands, a tight budget, and a lot of help from my dog, Dudo. This is the real story behind Dream Garden—how failure became my foundation, why…
If you Google “biggest problem businesses are facing today,” you’ll see articles about inflation, new technology, or supply chain issues. Yes, these things matter. But they’re not the real problem. I speak from experience. I’ve failed in business twice—once in 2015, then again in 2019. Each time, I thought the market was to blame. But in 2023, when my partner and I started over from scratch, we rebuilt a small resort with nothing but a tent, a bicycle, and a plot of dirt. Through this journey, I learned something important: the biggest challenge for small business owners today isn’t money…
I still remember the day I stood in waist-deep water, holding a heavy wooden mallet, wondering whether my business would survive. We had just failed for the second time, and I was exhausted. Most people see the beautiful photos of a finished garden. They don’t see the days spent standing in a river, soaked to the bone, hammering bamboo poles one by one because we couldn’t afford a contractor. If you are struggling right now, I want to share exactly how we turned Dream Garden around—not with magic, but by getting our hands dirty. My Business Journey: Three Times We…
Last month, we finished our walking bridge at Dream Garden. I stood back, looked at the sunflower field, and thought: “Something’s missing.” My team felt it too. The space needed a focal point—something people would actually want to photograph. After tossing around a few ideas, someone said, “What about a heart shape?” That was it. Three days later, we had a 3-meter (approx 10 feet) heart gate standing in the middle of our sunflower field. Total cost? $37.50. People now ask me all the time: “Did you hire an architect?” or “How much did that cost to build?” Nope. Just…
Last Friday evening, I sat in my office at Dream Garden. It was around 6:30 p.m., just as the day was beginning to cool down. I was tired. Really tired. I’d been reviewing reports all day, and my head hurt. I looked out the window and saw the sunset reflecting over the water. The sky was turning a deep, fiery orange. Beautiful. And I thought: This is why I’m here. I don’t want a big promotion or a fancy title. I just want peace. I want quiet. I want to help other people find it too. Today, when visitors come…
Last month, I watched three teenage girls spend twenty minutes trying to get the perfect photo at our resort. They weren’t photographing the sunset or the mountains. They were posing under our rainbow heart gate. That’s when I knew we’d built something special. If you’re running a resort or guesthouse and wondering how to create an Instagram-worthy spot without breaking the bank, let me share what we learned building our viral photo spot from scratch. Why Every Resort Needs a Signature Photo Spot Here’s the truth: guests already take photos everywhere. But when you give them one amazing spot designed…
This morning, I sat in the dirt with my laptop and Dudo right beside me. The sun was just starting to warm the grass, and Dudo—my loyal dog—was lying nearby, watching me with those patient eyes she always has. She follows me everywhere, rain or shine, and never complains. As I watched her, something clicked. Dudo has taught me more about business leadership than most management books ever could. I previously wrote about how Dudo taught me about determination, but today I want to talk about how she leads. Let me share what I’ve learned. What Does It Really Mean…