Renee Shepherd is widely regarded as a pioneering innovator in introducing international specialty vegetables and herbs for home gardeners and gourmet restaurants. After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of California in Santa Cruz and teaching in the Environmental Studies department there, she founded Shepherd's Garden Seed in 1985.  Renee left Shepherd's Seeds in 1996. The company has since ceased operations.

In 1997 she founded Renee's Garden, offering seeds through garden centers and nurseries and online, to offer fellow gardeners access to the high quality varieties otherwise available only to mail order shoppers. As the web developed, so did our website, community garden, and online catalog. Now Renee regularly writes the trail garden blog, gardening articles and creates recipes for our monthly newsletter. She writes all the copy on our seed packets, chooses seed varieties from producers large and small worldwide, manages marketing activities, and directs (and enjoys) the company's large trial gardens at her home where every selection is grown out and evaluated. 

Renee is also a prolific media contributor, appearing frequently in gardening and cooking periodicals such as Sunset, Fine Cooking, Organic Gardening, The Gardener, Fine Gardening, and Country Living. She has authored two kitchen garden cookbooks, Recipes from a Kitchen Garden and More Recipes From a Kitchen Garden , and is finishing a third cookbook with her cooking partner Fran Raboff.

Renee is a long time board member of the National Gardening Association. She lectures widely at national and regional garden shows, such as the Seattle, San Francisco and Philadelphia Flower and Garden Shows, and is a featured speaker at numerous gardening conferences.

In addition to her passions for gardening and cooking, Renee loves trail riding her horses Patches and Ruby, agility training with her dog Mr. Peabody and walking in the Santa Cruz mountains. She has many community and environmental interests and is currently the Chair of the Planning Commission for Santa Cruz Co, California.