Object of desire: a patio greengage

This year, Sainsburys has been stocking greengages; and therefore has my lunchbox been including Greengages. They're very non-acidic compared to most of their plummy brethren, with a fresh, gassy flavour. And small - they seem to have escaped the size swell that has driven peaches and nectarines to be mostly too big for my lunchbox. That tomato's one of mine. Sweet little yellow cherries so vigorous I've saved seed. We're keeping those.



So I've been watching OMG Nectarine (above, right - it's probably this one) and Dwarf Peach Crimson Bonfire like a hawk as they both appeared be having heavily fruiting years. But as usual, they threw off their fruit as they ripened, and I am now down to one and none respectively. Even unripe, Crimson Bonfire's peaches are amazing. But it's going to need a bigger pot, better soil, fewer slugs and snails (they nibble round the stem, and down come the fruits), something.

Maybe a super-dwarfing gage would do better. My yellow raspberries are left alone by pests, and then I would be able to have my own gages in my lunchbox; and look, Spalding say they have one. Growth height 150 centimetre. But are they to be trusted? I can't find any of the usuals selling a gage on anything smaller than a Pixy. A few people are raving about a new Russian rootstock, but if it's the Krymsk, it's no smaller than a Pixy.

Wait, I have it; Sibley's gage, a compact Reine Claude grafted onto new Russian rootstock Sibley, guaranteed to remain under 4Ft, fertility boosted by the proximity of peaches and nectarines! And here's another, Dwarf Cambridge Gage, from my usual suppliers, though sadly out of stock.

Let the elaborate justification for this purchase begin....