Together Culture Connections: Meet Jennifer and Sarah

Together Culture is growing a community of outrageously curious, open-minded and creative members who care for each other and want to build a more inclusive and ecological Cambridge. Our Connections programme aims to facilitate communication between all members to offer and gain support and connection based on shared interests, experiences, and values. 

Today, we’re introducing you to Jennifer and Sarah, garden designers and friends who joined Together Culture at the same time and have been using it as a base for remote working. You can find out more about Jennifer’s work here, and about Sarah’s work here. 

Why did you become a member of Together Culture?

Sarah: I heard about Together Culture through Cate, another garden designer who’s a member here. We met and she talked about this cool place where you could hot-desk, did you hear from her too?

Jennifer: Yes, I think we’d got together at a Society of Garden Designers meeting and I’d been complaining about being at home a lot! We’d tried working from a few places, like hotel lobbies. 

Sarah: We’re both having health issues and feeling a lack of confidence as a result of that, so we wanted to support each other. 

Jennifer: We thought if we can both come, support each other and get something done, it would break up the week. 

Sarah: We didn't expect this much from a workspace though, in terms of the bigger vision. And everyone’s really nice. 

Jennifer: Yeah, the warmth you get here! I’ve been trying to be more overtly “hello, I’m Jennifer, who are you?” to continue the trend, because it’s nice when you meet people.

Sarah: I don’t think I would have come on my own though - I would have had reasons not to, like not wanting to travel, but someone else motivates you. 

Jennifer: If you know you’re meeting someone, it holds you accountable. 

A hand drawn design by Jennifer

Tell us a bit about what you do!

Jennifer: So we’re both garden designers. I’ve done it for 5 years. I do a fair bit of work for other garden designers as well as for my own clients, mostly in the wider Cambridgeshire area. I’m finding it's nice to be in a creative space rather than just a coworking space, because of those conversations you end up having. Just tuning into another member nearby and realising we’re having a similar moment.

Sarah: Yeah, it’s inspiring to speak to other people in similar situations with positivity going on. 

Jennifer: Even just a small thing like walking to the loo and going past people’s artworks, it gives some freshness to what I’m doing. I’m more likely to try something different.

Sarah: There’s also a sense of not knowing what’s going to happen next here, which is unusual!

Jennifer: This is a bit of a side note, but I was walking to Together Culture recently, and I was going past cafes and seeing everyone eating delicious looking pastries and sandwiches, but I had a packed lunch with me, so I forced myself to get keep going so that I could have my lunch at Together Culture. And I realised I feel like this is a home-type space for me! Because £18.50 is affordable, and then you’re in this little club.

Sarah: I’m very similar to Jennifer - I’ve been a garden designer a little longer, and still struggle with being on my own, and half the time I wish I could ditch it and have someone else be my boss!! I specialise in designing gardens for wildlife and biodiversity. I’ve had cancer and chemotherapy recently too, so I’m keeping things straightforward and focusing more on physical gardening work at the moment.

Jennifer: You have to look after yourself first. With garden design, you give quite a lot of yourself - like any service industry I guess. It takes energy to imagine the other person and their needs. 

One of Sarah’s gardens

How and why did your collaboration emerge?

Jennifer: We were friends before, I think we met at a biodiversity group in Duxford. 

Sarah: And then we put on a big event in Duxford - a Festival of Nature - to help people learn what to do in their own gardens to support biodiversity. We’re doing another one this year. 

Jennifer: I think the key thing is we were physically and emotionally on the same wavelength at the time we started talking about coming here. 

Tell us a bit about what you're working on together at Together Culture.

Jennifer: We’ve done a planting plan together.

Sarah: Yeah, somebody we work for - Jen helped me with the software because I didn't know how to use it properly, so we had a few good sessions together!

What is your creative superpower as buddies?

Sarah: I think what I’m good at naturally is putting things together. Which is fine when you have every piece already in front of you, like a collage - but you can’t do that with a garden because often the plants won’t develop until months or years later! So you’re having to visualise things that aren’t there yet, and that’s difficult. 

Jennifer: Yes, and then how that relates to the client - do they want to be stimulated when they visit their garden, do they want to be relaxed…That’s what excites me! We’re actually going to a garden tomorrow to just wander around and get some inspiration. That’s been a great result of spending time working beside each other at Together Culture - we’re gently encouraging and motivating each other.

Sarah: And we’re gardening together tomorrow too! Which I’m not sure we would have done if we hadn’t done this regular work day at Together Culture. So by coming here it’s stimulating other work too. 

Become a Community Member of Together Culture for £18.50 a month here. Email ellie@togetherculture.com to find out about Pay What You Can membership. 

And you’re invited to join us on 22 June for Saturday Lounge - a free event celebrating our neighbourhood!