Modern country charm, vintage signs at Katie Bird Farm

Julie and Kay built their charming hobby farm and garden over the past 12 years, naming it Katie Bird Farm after a beloved grandmother.… Read More

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Chickens and donkeys and ducks, oh my! Katie Bird Farm has it all, plus gardens galore and a modern farmhouse and swimming pool on 3 acres in southwest Austin — all of it decorated with vintage signs and repurposed farm equipment. Owners Julie Nelson and Kay Angermann built this charming hobby farm and country garden by hand over the past 12 years. It was my first stop on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour last Saturday.

The first thing I noticed, walking up the driveway, was how Julie and Kay use upturned stock tanks as display tables and pot pedestals. This vignette of yuccas, Texas mountain laurel, a sculptural cedar stump, and a kalanchoe planter atop a round stock tank is set off with shredded bark mulch. Live oaks and flameleaf sumac make a green backdrop. Pure Central Texas, this.

A metal roadrunner represents Kay’s guardian angel, according to her account on Central Texas Gardener or Cooped Up (Season 1, Episode 3; start at the 15:40-minute mark), two videos worth watching for in-process images of the garden and also the adorable way the couple finishes each other’s sentences. As her story goes, Kay was chain-sawing cedar trees alone at the property and noticed a roadrunner following her around. It seemed to be watching out for her as she did dangerous work,……