Residents can welcome spring with greener lawn care and gardening practices by taking advantage of savings up to 25 percent on natural yard-care products during the 11th annual Northwest Natural Yard Days, April 15- May 15.

This is the last year of the Northwest Natural Yard Days sale because the program has been successful in helping Puget Sound residents buy and use natural yard-care products, according to officials.

The 11-year partnership between King County, the City of Seattle, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and 25 other agency members promotes environmentally friendly yard care by offering discounts on gardening products at more than 90 participating retail locations from Bellingham to Olympia.

Natural yard-care products such as electric mulch mowers, bagged compost and natural organic fertilizer save work, reduce air pollution and add nutrients to the lawn and garden.

“When we began this program back in 1998, these products were not readily available in retail stores,” said Gerty Coville, of the King County Solid Waste Division.

“Today, environmentally preferable natural yard care products can be found in numerous retail outlets year ‘round. We’ve accomplished our goals, so this will be the final year for the program,” she said.

Northwest Natural Yard Days endorses the regional five steps of natural yard care:

• Build healthy soil

• Plant right for your site

• Practice smart watering

• Think twice before using pesticides

• Practice natural lawn care

For more information about natural yard care, contact The Garden Hotline, 206-633-0224, or help@gardenhotline.org.

King County and the City of Seattle have a variety of educational materials and workshops about natural landscaping available at no cost. Natural landscaping brochures and a full list of participating Northwest Natural Yard Days retailers are available at www.yarddays.com or by calling the Hotline.