Kirsten West, a native of Denmark, was born and raised on a dairy farm on the island of Fyn — where farming, fishing, hygge, and tending the garden were ordinary parts of an ordinary day. She learned to look closely from her mother Marie, an expert knitter, sewer, embroiderer, and bobbin lacemaker.
She later studied Botanical Illustration, Drawing, and Painting at the Rhode Island School of Design. Now living on Cape Cod, Kirsten brings four decades of attention to gardens across the Mid, Lower, and Outer Cape — composing planting plans, restoring overgrown beds, and shepherding properties through the seasons with the patience of someone who grew up watching things grow.
Her practice is small by design, taking on a limited number of clients each season so that each garden receives the care it deserves. She works alone or with a trusted hand for the heavier seasonal work.
Site walks, planting plans, sketches drawn by hand.
From bare bed to mature composition.
Spring opening, summer care, fall closeout, winter prep.
Roses, hydrangeas, fruit trees, ornamental shrubs.
For roses, hydrangeas, fruit trees and tougher plantings.
Designed for harvest, beauty, and a long season.
Bringing overgrown gardens carefully back.
A single visit, a sketched plan, a way forward.
Kirsten doesn't just maintain a garden — she has a relationship with it.— A client in Orleans
A short defense of waiting until the forsythia blooms — and what to look for on the cane before you cut.
Notes from the spring opening of three Outer Cape gardens, and what survived the winter.
The case for spring planting — and against the convenience of fall — for the famous Cape blue mopheads.
For new gardens, restorations, and seasonal care across the Mid, Lower, and Outer Cape.
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