BOULDER CREST

PHOTOS ©dillonkeenphotography.com

Donna Hackman and Lisa Catlett arrive at the Boulder Crest Retreat for Wounded Warriors in Bluemont just as the sun rises. For the past five years, they have traveled from their homes in Middleburg one morning a week for nine months of the year. They often each have an assistant in tow in order to plant and maintain a distinctive secret garden on the 37- acre compound.

Lisa Catlett and Donna Hackman

A table with umbrella offers a peaceful place.

The garden benches represent the five branches of the military: Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines and Air Force.

The rear gate is drenched in white clematis.

A sixty-foot cutting garden, bursting with alliums, peonies and more, provides seasonal flowers for the guest cabins.

This gazebo purposely does not contain a table that might restrict mobility. All areas are close to a nearby ramp.

Mrs. Hackman is a highly respected garden designer with dozens of completed projects that reflect her signature style of abundant hues and shades in intoxicating fragrances. Each garden is established against a creative backdrop of hardscape walls and pergolas with accents of textured trees and shrubs. This garden incorporates low walls, broad walkways and ramps to accommodate an extraordinary group of visitors.

Mrs. Catlett is a friend and fellow horticultural devotee. The concept of their effort, which changes from year to year, is to offer a “park-like sanctuary.” It can be described as the characteristic British elegance of “never enough.”

“This is important and I’m lucky Lisa feels the same way,” Mrs. Hackman said. “Everything we do is donated.” Their work is totally volunteer and let’s just say, they are… horticultural heroines.

The garden benches represent the five branches of the military: Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines and Air Force.