Specialty Gardening: Cottage garden or not?, 1 by flagardener

flagardener wrote:
Hi all - sorry to just jump in but I do a have a question regarding cottage style gardening.. This year my DH finally agreed to do some more gardening on our front yard. He even suggested a design for it.. i was so excited and wanted to fill the 4x12 ft. bed with a path on the middle and even a whimsical small wooden bridge that separates the bed in two sections. I did manage to fill it in and in due time plants grew and bloomed but I can't seem to convince myself that I created a cottage style garden bed.

I am not as pleased so to speak with how it looks - to me it was just a bed full of flowers and it doesn't look at all cottagey to me. what am I doing wrong???? here are some pix taken before and after ... I would greatly appreciate any input - btw i live in zone 8a-...

this is how it looked in the spring