By Sharon Hull

Santa Cruz gardeners can take pride in the fact that we support our local garden-related businesses, and we have some fine garden centers and nursery supply houses in the county from which to buy what we need. But did you know that the colorful seed packets with the beautiful watercolor pictures that you see in local stores, produced by Renee's Garden Seeds, are from a locally owned and operated business?

And not only is the owner Renee Shepherd a Santa Cruz County resident, but many of her seeds are tested in her Felton gardens, to ensure that her plants will thrive here. A recent visit to her fascinating trial gardens and a conversation with Shepherd gave a good overview of the principles by which her company operates, her reasons for being in the seed business and some of her goals for the future.

Like many of us, Shepherd learned to love gardening at her grandmother's side, developing a special relationship with growing vegetables. Over the years, she noticed that many of the seed commonly available was not actually appropriate for the home garden but had been developed for big farm production instead.

While in graduate school, a chance encounter with a man from Holland introduced her to European vegetable varieties. She found many of them to be much more productive and delicious than what was largely available at the time from the American seed houses.

With the help of friends, including Beth Benjamin of Camp Joy Gardens in Ben Lomond, Shepherd began to search for seed varieties that would reliably produce good food that could be used in everyday life in the average kitchen. Her first business, Shepherd's Garden Seeds, included seed that was beloved by home vegetable gardeners.

Eventually, she sold Shepherd's Garden Seeds but soon missed being involved in the business. In 1998, she started Renee's Garden Seeds, with the aim of focusing entirely on the home gardener's needs and running her business from her own home office.

Flowers for the home gardener were also included, since Shepherd knew that most of us want our gardens to be beautiful and that our spirits as well as our bodies need nourishment. On her Web site, she puts it this way: "Renee's Garden is my practical way to spread the joy of gardening as a meaningful, productive and satisfying activity that connects us to each other and the earth."

Seed trials

But because her seeds are sold nationally as well as locally, her test gardens extend well beyond the gardens here. Her seeds are trialed in various climates across the nation, with the aim of selling seed for plants that will be successful everywhere.

Over the years, Shepherd says that she has found that short-season or early varieties of both vegetables and flowers are most likely to thrive in all climates so most of her seeds will grow into plants that mature and produce rapidly.

She also tests flowers for cutting by using them in her own home and regularly tests recipes by using the trial garden vegetables in her own kitchen. She said that her staff members often act as taste-testers, eating what she's prepared for their lunches.

You may already have one or more of her cookbooks, featuring fresh produce in easy-to-prepare recipes. "A Kitchen Garden" and "More Recipes from a Kitchen Garden" can be found in local nurseries and bookstores, as well as ordered from Shepherd's Web site www.reneesgarden.com. A third cookbook is in the works.

Shepherd buys her seed from sources she has found to be trustworthy and reliable from all over the world, and from small organic growers whenever possible. Her business philosophy supports sustainable farming practices and does not sell treated or GMO seeds. She works regularly with The Home Garden Seed Association and the Organic Seed Alliance to keep the old varieties available.

Many of her seed packets include more than one kind of seed, which is a help to gardeners who are trying to make their dollars stretch. For example, for beginning gardeners, look for the Easy to Grow Seed Collection, containing five individual packets for a summer vegetable garden.

If you garden to attract hummingbirds or butterflies, a combo packet contains seed for nectar-rich plants such as Cardinal Climber and Cleome. Other combo packets contain several seed varieties of the same kind of plant, such as the one with three colors of bush beans, or the hollyhock packet including shades of apricot and rosy peach.

On the Web

The Reneesgarden.com Web site is a gold mine of information. Under "Articles/How To," you will find tips and techniques on general gardening, herbs and flowers, kitchen gardening and 2008 and 2009 newsletters from Shepherd.

There is a "Cookbooks/Recipes" section to help you decide exactly what to do with those veggies that are pouring out of your garden. Suggestions for garden designs, theme gardens, as well as general how-to lists are in the section called "Gardeners Resources."

In the Garden

Shepherd is always searching for improved or new varieties to be released once they have been thoroughly trialed and proven themselves winners. She personally monitors how the plants in her test gardens are doing and was very enthusiastic as she described how especially promising seed has performed.

Of note for local gardeners: she mentioned that she has long been on an avid hunt for "an early melon that will properly develop sugar and flavor in our cool climate."

Since melons grown here often lack sweetness, it will be an exciting breakthrough when her search is successful. She said that so far, "the most promising melons have come from Asia, Istanbul and Tuscany."

While wandering through Shepherd's trial gardens, the following were especially attention-grabbing:

• Drip tubing bent into arches over beds to support bird netting or floating row cover.

• A bed of hibiscus grown for making tea, trialing and perhaps available in 2011.

• A large pot containing a trailing morning glory with beautiful variegated leaves.

• Many dwarf or compact plants being tested for future release, including a spaghetti squash and a pumpkin suitable for container growing.

• A luminous white-flowering dwarf lavender that perfumed the air.

• A bed of an old-fashioned carnation that has been around for at least 150 years, being tested because the flowers have that wonderful spicy fragrance -- Sheperd is searching for one that is self-supporting so won't need staking.

• A bed of the natural sweetener stevia -- will this one be good for the home garden?

• Several beds of dwarf cosmos -- which flowers best, on the strongest plants?

• English cucumber plants grown on tomato cages, with the long smooth cukes suspended so they have no ground contact, thus avoiding moisture damage.

• Several colors of old-fashioned hollyhocks with big powder-puff flowers.

• A bed of arugula that tastes like wasabi.

• White and purple carrots waving feathery tops.

• A gravity-fed irrigation system that is supplied by the spring-fed pond near the top of the hillside property.

• The excellent and effective deer fence surrounding much of the property that was designed and installed by Mike Boynton, whom Shepherd described as "a local treasure" for his knowledge and work ethic.

• A large trial bed of zinnia "little lion" in full bloom; stunning big shaggy orange flowers on compact plants may be available next year.

• Large fruiting strawberries with fabulous flavor, all grown from seed.

Coming up

Watch for these and other flowers and edibles to be available from Renee's Garden in the next few years. And the new varieties for 2010? They are showing up now in your favorite garden center and can also be found on the Web site.

Shepherd is especially excited about the mild Spanish Padron tapas peppers because they have performed so brilliantly in all the trials, and because they are so incredibly productive and delicious. As you plan your garden for this winter and next spring, you are sure to find many seeds from Sheperd that will appeal to your taste buds and your need for beauty in the garden.