I am trying to make a cottage garden in a part of our yard that we have never attempted to landscape before. Its fenced. I want it to be partially tropical, partially butterfly/bee, have some tub gardens, etc. This is what I have Planted so far.....

Bauhinia tree, vines on the fence (passiflora, jasmine, wisteria), caladiums, ALocasia and colocasia, bromeliads, coleus, buddleia, some decorative grasses (aztec, mthly, fountain), firecracker fern, Salvia, banana, curcuma, costus gingers.

I'd like to do a rough construct trellis from wood harvested from the forest. I haven;t edges yet.

What else should I consider?

And, what happens to most cottage gardens in winter? Does everything die back? Most of what I have is hardy here. I might care to cover a couple things

In winter my garden sleeps under a blanket of snow.

In spring all the bulbs and perennials come back
a lot of the flowers self sow and it can turn into beautiful ciaos .

So those come back from being buried in SNOW? Wow.

Yep
amazing design

Thanks for answering my question Cinda...I know its probably a dumb one LOL. But 'cottage gardens' here in Florida are really almost nonexistent. People here still cling to lawns, which are totally destroying the ecosystem in some places where fertilizer runoff is a huge problem, getting into creeks, springs and causing horrible algal problems. There are a few people in town that I have seen that have ditched the grass and done the cottage style thing, but not that many.

My husband wants to SOD this space. I refused.....until I get it all planted as extensively as I can. Then he can 'fill in' with some grass.

Maybe in your climate you have a natural rain-forest garden with all the tropicals

country living makes it a bit easier to do the natural thing My lawn is more weeds than grass. The weeds feed many things , rabbits and butterflies
My former pasture is becoming a prairie restoration area , hard to keep my husband from mowing the whole thing .I did let him mow a path around the edge so he can keep the fence up.
WE let the lower bottom along the creek go wild some 20 years ago and it has been interesting to see the transformation .
Many wild creatures live there , beaver , deer , opossum, raccoons,skunks, great horned owls we had a fox family this year

It doesn't make up for the hundreds of acres of corn and beans all around us , but every little bit helps

Gina, your plan sounds wonderful to me. Just keep planting. Instead of some grass mulch works great and doesn't need to be mowed.

At my house... All those flowers and weeds feed the song birds.

Very important to leave everything standing.