Lorene Edwards Forkner: Gardener, Writer, and Artist

Artists are some of the best of us at appreciating the beauty of plants. Lorene Edwards Forkner is an artist and writer, and she has found that so many of the basics can be applied to gardening as well. 

“Gardening to me is all of those same practices. It's choreography. It's color, it’s form, it’s texture.”

Not everything is the same, of course. Lorene says that one of the special things about gardening is that everything is ephemeral. While the colors of a painting of a flower will stick around, your time with real flowers is limited and must be cherished. 

“The garden also teaches you to let go. You can't possess it.”

Lorene believes that gardening teaches us a lot about being human. The highs and lows reflect life outside the garden and helps her understand more about herself through tough times. 

“You're going to have wins, losses. There's going to be death, there's going to be birth, there's going to be celebration. We are all gardening our lives. And the garden kind of shows me how to do it.”

A film by Charlie Pierson.