The GoodText Box: The Good Text Box: The Good What are the benefits and advantages of having a pond? From talking to and doing research of many real estate agencies, I have discovered that those homes that have a pond increase the value of the property anywhere from 7 to 9 percent. In my opinion that is equal to adding a small addition to your home. What a pond does in your back or front yard is creates a center piece of the landscape. Whether you’re sitting in the shade watching your fish play in the pond in the front of your house or in the back yard enjoying a bridge where you can stand and just reflect on the beauty of the lilies and the lush greenery and flowers that surrounds the pond. Perhaps you enjoy listening to the water trickle through the rocks or bounce off the water from a fountain, whatever value or comfort you receive from having a pond, it adds more than monetary value to your home, it adds peace and serenity, a place where you can relax. Some of you may be concerned about the amount of water used in the pond. Well in my opinion the fact is you will use less water in a pond, than you will use in the same square footage of a lawn or flower bed. In a lawn or flower bed the water just goes down into the ground, in a pond after the first time of filling it, it is just a matter of topping it off. Of course you do lose some water due to evaporation from the wind and from the sun during the warmer months; however, the same applies to a flower garden or a lawn. I have a flower bed that measures about 10 feet by 25 feet along one side of my driveway, compared to a pond I have that measures 18 feet by 50 feet, the pond is twice the size of the flower bed and uses approximately 50 percent less water than the flower bed.