A Landscape Design Journey, Rooted in Longwood Learning

With opportunities in floral to landscape design, culinary to creative arts, and well-being to gardening, for many, our Continuing Education experiences are a fantastic source of fun, engaging learning—a way to explore a new hobby, grow one’s skills, and mingle with friends (or make new ones) while exploring an interest. For some, they serve as a first step towards pursuing a budding green career, a bridge to higher education opportunities, or an avenue to making impacts within one’s community. I had the pleasure of speaking with Linda Leimbach, a long-time gardener and occupational therapist who has done all that, and more, after starting her landscape design journey here at Longwood. Her journey has led her to amazing places and accomplishments, and we’re so honored that learning at Longwood was a part of it.  

Blending nature and culture to create functional and aesthetically pleasing outdoor spaces, landscape design is a dynamic, growing field full of ample opportunities. Landscape design also serves as the focus of our newly redesigned Landscape Design Certificate program, perfect for those looking to start their own landscape design practice; those in the horticulture and landscape fields looking to build their design skills; or those looking to expand their love and understanding of landscape design. For Leimbach, her interest in landscape design began when, as an occupational therapist, she was tasked with running a therapeutic greenhouse with the Department of Veteran Affairs. Long before this opportunity presented itself, she recalls a love of houseplants when she was a child, as her mother had kept indoor plants in their apartment. This, combined with her already-established gardening hobby, formed the foundation of Leimbach’s plant knowledge … but she wanted more concrete opportunities to learn about plant life, landscaping, and design.

Leimbach began by taking horticulture-focused courses at the Community College of Baltimore County, and then pursued a Certificate of Merit in Ornamental Horticulture at Longwood Gardens. Our Certificate of Merit in Ornamental Horticulture has since been reimagined as our new Gardening Certificate—an engaging program filled with hands-on opportunities in one of the great gardens of the world, designed to meet the changing interests of our students. 

While pursuing this certificate at Longwood—and completing it in November 2022—Leimbach dove into the more scientific side of gardening, from botanical names to plant functions, ecosystems, and more. Though it was a step into a new world of learning, Leimbach met the challenge … and ended up successfully running the therapeutic greenhouse with the knowledge she had gathered from her courses at Longwood and beyond.

Leimbach also used her newly developed knowledge and skills of the world of horticulture to create a beautiful garden in her own yard. Many horticulture and gardening courses at Longwood encourage students to cultivate their own passion projects—whether that be a thriving indoor plant collection, to a flourishing home garden, to anything they dream up. 

Leimbach’s budding horticultural knowledge blended well with her career as an occupational therapist, as she started to incorporate more nature-based activities into her work with patients. While volunteering as a Harford County Master Gardener at the Kaufman Cancer Center, University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health in Bel Air, MD, Leimbach designed a two-hour, monthly Therapeutic Horticulture Program to get patients out into the garden. “They were there to try something different and not think about what they were going through,” recalls Leimbach. “My patients realized they could keep growing through horticulture—tend to gardens and watch them grow as they grew themselves.” 

Inspired by the good that green spaces can do in people’s lives—and after seeing that in practice—Leimbach revisited Continuing Education courses at Longwood, now venturing into landscape design. Her venture timed up with the pandemic, and she did most of her learning online at a time our learning experiences had to migrate to virtual settings. 

While pursuing her Certificate of Merit in Landscape Design, Leimbach was especially inspired by her drawing and graphic representation classes, where students learned how to translate their observational and plant identification skills into drawings of beautiful plants, as well as future landscapes and gardens. “This is where art came together with science for us, and I began to see a different path forward for me that combined horticulture, landscape design, and human health and well-being,” says Leimbach. She completed her certificate in November 2024. 

Around that same time, Leimbach discovered the Graduate Landscape Architecture program at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD, which offers an accredited degree for students interested in becoming professional landscape architects. With a portfolio interwoven with work she developed through her Longwood landscape design courses, Morgan State University believed Leimbach was well prepared for this degree track—and they were able to waive some of her degree requirements based on her previous education and experience. “I found that the skills I developed at Longwood in plant identification and graphic representation facilitated my success at Morgan from the start and allowed me to master advanced skills in landscape architecture more effectively and at a faster rate," says Leimbach.

Leimbach is particularly interested in the fascinating impact that ecological spaces can have on urban areas—particularly on crime rates, and the mental and physical health of residents. During her time at Morgan State, Leimbach has studied community gardens that can double as a source of fresh produce and a spot to place solar panels to generate clean energy for local use. These innovations are only part of the world of possibilities that exist in the realm of landscape architecture and other green careers that can emerge from foundations in landscape design.

“Longwood taught me about the vast world of horticulture and landscape design beyond its Gardens. The networking opportunities, the art and science aspects of areas such as botany, soil science, graphic representation, and planting design ... it all catapulted me into an exciting new world of lifelong learning, future career development, and enduring friendships that I will never forget,” says Leimbach.

A spark of interest in a green topic—no matter how small—can be the start of something bigger and a journey down pathways into green careers previously unexplored. No matter where your interests fall in the natural world, taking a step into educational experiences could unlock a hidden talent or passion that you can take as far as you’d like. Direct your knowledge to your own backyard or, maybe, all the way to your local university—the possibilities are endless!

Editor’s note: Interested in all the ways that the natural world can benefit our well-being, physically and mentally? Explore our new well-being experiences, which include relaxing experiences in our Gardens, new ways to reconnect with nature and yourself, yoga, tai chi, meditation, and so much more. Looking to take your learning further? Begin your journey by exploring our Landscape Design, Floral Design, and Gardening certificate programs … or see everything our Gardens have to offer with all Continuing Education experiences. For those interested in starting their Landscape Design certificate journey, registration is now open for People, Plants & Landscape Design, which serves as the first class in that certificate sequence.