Daniel Lowery, APLD, was the First Place Winner in the Specialty Garden category for "The Kissing Garden" in the 2002 APLD Awards Contest.

Lowery said: "I recently read that artists look into things rather than at them. I view myself as an artist and my design work delves far below the surface. Besides designing a private place where my clients would fell comfortable enough outsoors to be intimate, there was another important requirement.

I needed to spark the imagination of the 'woman of the garden' who is also a poet. She wanted to be excited by something everytime she walked through the garden, as her poetry alludes to color in nearly every passage. As we layered plants, art and hardscape materials in rich color contrasts, she taught me to be more observant and to laugh often.