Yes, you can have an English-style cottage garden in the tropics! This Fort Lauderdale client wanted something other than the "same old Jurassic Park looking stuff," as he put it. So instead of the tropical look, I did a 180 in the other direction and served up some English Cottage Garden Realness. This was a great test of my creative abilities as a designer, to conjure up something completely unusual for the tropical climate of South Florida. The design used flowing beds of annuals and perennials, with pathways of lawn in between, just as you would see in a real English cottage. A utility shed in the corner of the yard became an anchoring focal point by mounting a "Flowers" sign on it, to further enhance the cottage garden feel. An empty space towards the far end of the property became a secret woodland pathway garden, with delicate, shade-loving perennials on either side of a winding fieldstone path and tumbling around stone statues and benches.