Mayfield Park is a free public garden on the northwest shore of Lake Austin, donated to the city in 1971 by Allison Mayfield and maintained largely as the family left it: a cottage garden with peacocks and peahens wandering free among the flower beds, koi ponds, and native plantings. The peacocks are the reason most visitors come — they are genuinely wild, roost in the trees at night, and during mating season the males display their full fans in the garden.
The park is small — about 23 acres, much of it undeveloped canyon preserve — and the cultivated garden area around the cottage is only a few acres. But it is delightfully peaceful and unexpected: a formal garden with free-roaming peacocks, adjacent to a suburban neighbourhood. The peahens tend to be accompanied by small chicks in late spring. There is no admission charge and no formal admission process; the park simply asks that visitors respect the birds and the plantings.