Starbucks and Spring Series: Iced Coffee and Flower Planting Tips, A Perfect Match!

The weather has finally gotten to a point in the Midwest where we can plant our gardens without worry of frost. Gardening season was quite late this year. And in typical Chicago form, we have gone from winter to summer. The late spring days are pretty warm! So when I did my gardening-palooza last weekend, mamma needed some tasty, cool beverages that also had a nice kick to keep he going! I gardened for 7 hours, both Saturday and Sunday.  I celebrated half way through, both days, by sitting on my deck bench and sipping one of Starbucks Iced Coffees, revelling in my progress.

See, here I am on my sitting bench. I designed and sewed all that on that bench. It’s a cozy nook.

You can get these Starbucks Iced Coffees in many grocery stores near you. They have a sweetened and unsweetened version, and the sweetened version is not really very sweet at all. This line is all about bold coffee flavor right out of the bottle, not sugar. Pour it over ice and you are good to go. I liked it with a splash of vanilla almond milk.

After resting up, this nice cold brew gave me the boost I needed to keep planting with a vengeance. Here is a bit of my handywork.

I cleaned up my sun bed, weeded and planted annuals in open areas around perennials.

Brick paver are a main attraction in my shade bed on the side of our house (above photos). My mosaic bench creates a nice seating area in the garden, and I salvaged a big copper pot from a thrift shop that I fill with shade annuals. Shade beds get flowers but for a short time, so to keep color all season long, you need to use some shade annuals.

The deck is it’s own afternoon of work. I cleaned out the boxes that lined the deck, turned the soil over and fertilized it. Then I planted annuals with many trailing vinca plants. I also filled pots here and there, with many plant stands I salvaged from thrift shops. Smaller pots were filled with small kitchen herbs.

New to gardening? Here is a video on how to repot  annuals from the nursery into their summer home around your yard.

  Please note: Starbucks bottle iced coffee was provided by Starbucks. All thoughts, opinions and obsessions about Starbucks coffee are completely my own. Thanks! #starbucks #starbucksspring @starbucks