An Unexpected Treat - Howard Dill in the Bruges Market

Howard Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkins!

Seed racks just a few feet from Notre Dame in Paris

I have to say that I was a bit surprised at the price of seeds in Europe.. I managed to visit about 4 garden centers, along with a few large hardware stores, but the cost of most seed packets ranged from 2 to 8 euros (a package of beans was 7 euros!!).. The average cost was about 4 euros.. pretty pricey! I would have liked to buy more - different varieties of tomatoes, zucchini, as well as some of the many salad greens. I was very impressed at the amount of 'winter hardy greens' like mache. One hardware store offered 6 different varieties of mache!

While eyeing the seed racks during the Wednesday morning market in Bruges, Belgium (I was thrilled to find seed racks at the farmer's market!), I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted Howard Dill's Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds on the rack! I had to snap a photo.. funny, but the seed pack had the same photo you see on the seed racks here.

The seeds I did buy (I will take photos) were 'Florissimo' double pink nasturtiums (more doubled than those I've seen before), 'Sunny Girl' calendula (such a distinctive colour  yellow-brown petals edged in deep red), 'Klausia' Batavia lettuce (similar to Lolla Rossa. Deeply curled, red and green combo), 'little jewels' ornamental corn (picked by the kids, not me, but very cute!) and some pink forget me nots.. we loved the forget me not's as an underplanting for tulips at Monet's garden so we had to get a packet..

Those Monet garden photos will come tomorrow.. LOVED it!