I used to have a big cottage garden type bed on a hillside. It was 40 x 100. Plus all my other beds. Now, I am down to one bed that is triangular, maybe 45 on the longest, by 30. I am not sure that is big enough to count as a cottage garden. It is STUFFED with my favorite shrub roses, phlox, monads, iris-tall German, spirea, Siberian... huchera, blackberry lily, peonies, true lilies, hardy geranium, asters, coneflowers.... Many, many more things, and bordering the walk on one side, a triple row of around 60 day lilies, many of those are my seedlings. On the other side, between the walk and my house, I have about 5 feet of shade, with about 1 foot of full sun right along the walk. So, I have some little daylilies and small sun plants right along the walk, but a study of foliage plants in the shade.
I am not sure, since I have such a small area now, if it would be considered a "cottage garden" anymore. I am using the iPad now, so cannot post photos. It is very hard to get a good phot anyway, because of how the bed is positioned. House background, woods, are dark.. Light is always wrong. Has been very frustrating!
When I look up the cottage garden definition, they seem to say that a CG has fruit trees (mine has a crab apple, but I don't think that counts) and vegetables.
Juli
...not Mex Hat, they are great cone flowers, or cabbage leaf coneflowers, rudbeckia maxima. The get about six foot tall!
Tamara!
I guess beauty truly is in the eyes of the beholder. A friend of mine grows it so I must be diplomatic. Not bad if you have the right spot, I suppose. We cultivate the Queen Anne's Lace here and many people think of that as a weed. 
What is the multi-trunked tree? Have you gotten any relief from the heat and drought there?
