The garden is owned by Ms. Ngo Thi Thao, with an area of over 10,000 square meters planted with about 100 durian trees over 20 years old and 100 mangosteen trees over a decade old. Ms. Ngo Thi Thao, said: “My foray into tourism was quite serendipitous. That year, the garden was in full ripe durian season, many visitors came to the garden to buy food on the spot, while others would cart them home by the crate. One person spread the word to another, and more and more visitors came. With the encouragement from my relatives, especially my two daughters (active in the tourism industry), I boldly hung the sign “Ms. Thao's durian garden" and opened the door to welcome guests. It's been like that since then, it's been 7-8 years.”

A special feature of Ms. Thao's Durian Garden is that compared to the market, the price of Ms. Thao's durian is about 30,000-40,000 VND/kg higher and when visiting, you have to buy a ticket (20,000 VND/person), but guests are still happy to “pay money”. Not only that, the next year's fruit season, if familiar customer do not come to the garden to enjoy, they still call to order. “Durian and mangosteen in my house are grown according to a clean process, ripe fruits are natural, absolutely do not use stimulants, so they have a typical aroma and sweet taste. On the other hand, guests can visit, break the fruit themselves and eat it right at the garden. If they are not satisfied, they will be refunded. The reason the price of durian are “increasing” is because the cost of hiring people to tie the fruit while it is alive and untie it when the fruit is ripe is quite high. But in order to ensure the safety for visitors when visiting and satisfy customers' need to manually break nine durian trees, we have to do it carefully and meticulously” - Ms. Thao said.

One of the reasons that attract visitors to Ms. Thao's Durian Garden is the feature of a perennial fruit garden in the West that intercrops durian and mangosteen. And guests enter the garden mainly to enjoy the spacious, airy, quiet, fresh space, which is very suitable for relaxing on weekends. Around the garden are arranged tables and chairs, hammocks, huts for visitors to sit and rest, eat and drink. In addition to fruits, the garden also serves soft drinks and country dishes, such as shredded chicken porridge, steamed chicken with garlic, grilled snakehead fish, grilled chicken with durian...

Visiting and experiencing at Ms. Thao's durian garden on the weekend, Ms. Huynh Thi Y, in Co Do town, shared: "My place has no garden, so when I surfed Facebook, I saw that this durian garden is quite beautiful. It's closer to home so I'll leave right away. Before arriving, I pre-ordered some lunch dishes, and as soon as I arrived, the staff had already prepared the dishes. The dishes here are close to Westerners, and the prices are quite reasonable. It is very interesting to eat and drink while immersing yourself in nature like this”.

Every year, Ms. Thao's durian garden welcomes visitors from the last month of March to the end of May of the lunar calendar. This is the harvest season of durian and mangosteen. On weekdays, the garden welcomes about 20-40 guests/day; on weekends and holidays, the number of guests doubles and triples. Visitors come here not only in Can Tho City but also neighboring provinces and the Central and Northern regions. According to Ms. Thao, this year, the durian garden produced about 5 tons, with a selling price of 100,000 VND/kg, she collected about 500 million VND. In addition, Ms. Thao is also experimenting with planting an apple orchard with an area of 2,000 square meters with the initial orientation of developing tourism. However, due to lack of experience, the results were not successful and her family is learning from many places to perfect the model in the coming time.

Regarding the upcoming orientation, Ms. Ngo Thi Thao affirmed: "For me, prestige and product quality are the most important. Thanks to this, Ms. Thao's durian garden not only retains long-term customers but also gains new customers. Therefore, this motto has been and will continue to be maintained in the coming time. In order to affirm the prestige and brand, I have registered the exclusive trademark of Ms Thao Durian; at the same time, registered for 3-star OCOP product certification. To meet the new consumption trend, I also proactively created QR codes to trace the origin of durian”.

Mr. Le Chi Phuong, Vice Chairman of Co Do Rural District People's Committee, assessed: The Co Do Rural District is promoting the restructuring of the Agriculture sector associated with new rural construction. In particular, direct communes to focus on effectively implementing Resolution No. 02-NQ/HU of the Co Do Rural District Party Committee on Promoting the sustainable development of the collective economy and garden economy of Co Do rural district in the period 2020-2025, orientation to 2030 and Resolution 03-NQ/HU of the Co Do Rural District Party Committee on the development of agricultural and rural tourism in Co Do rural district, aiming to promote the rural district's advantages in economic development and enhance high people's income. Ms. Ngo Thi Thao's model of fruit garden combined with eco-tourism is one of the typical models. Therefore, in the coming time, the rural district continues to support and facilitate the further development of durian gardens through brand promotion, connecting supply and demand, from which other farmers can learn and replicate.