Adding x and y laxis label to ggplot-grid build with cowplot

Question

I produced a grid with cowplot:

library(ggplot2)
library(cowplot)

ggg1 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg,vs)) + geom_point() +
  theme(axis.title.x=element_blank         


        

Answer 1

This seems to work...

plot_grid(plot_grid(ggg1, ggg2, labels=c("", ""), ncol = 1), 
          ggg3, 
          labels=c("", ""), 
          ncol =2,  
          scale=0.9) + #perhaps reduce this for a bit more space
draw_label("xlab", x=0.5, y=  0, vjust=-0.5, angle= 0) +
draw_label("ylab", x=  0, y=0.5, vjust= 1.5, angle=90)

Answer 2

Here's an alternative strategy

library(grid)
library(gridExtra)
library(egg)
grid.arrange(gtable_cbind(gtable_frame(ggarrange(ggg1, ggg2, draw=F)), 
                          gtable_frame(ggplotGrob(ggg3))),
             left = textGrob("Left",rot=90), 
             bottom = textGrob("Bottom"))