Hello Freeasabird,
(Love the name)

Well ref the greenhouse "you dont have" Did you know you can now buy a very small tomatoe mini greenhouse?
Im talking about a free standing polythene tunnel effect thats just long & wide enough for about 6 tomatoe plants to sit under, the sides roll up to let air in and the top is to keep rain off, they are very cheap and when not needed can be stored away until next year.
So you can have one of these and they'll sit well on a patio.
But why not have cherry tomatoes that grow in a hanging basket, 'I use an old kitchen collender "veg strainer" it's got a few cheap chains fixed to the handle's "it's a metal one ive used but plastic works just as well, And it sits mounted from the kitchen doorway,

And because this handy little kitchen tool already has holes in it you dont have to worry ref drainage,
these cherry hanging toms are really nice for salads, grow like mad and last all summer, feed once a week with liquid tom feed and keep from drying out
"remember hanging baskets dry out quicker than ground grown plants"
.
REF out door toms, money maker is a good simple to grow one, or if you like a sweet tomatoe full of body and flavour try the newer type of russian (black coloured toms)
they all have strange names but you cant help but see the sorts im talking about by the seed pkt picture on the front of the packet. (they're a very dark coloured tom)
Well worth trying and they're good ref size.

Living in Oxfordshire you should have no trouble growing tomatoes outdoors... Pick varieties you like the sound of and just go for it!

thanks dungy for all your advice, I will look out for the mini greenhouse you mentioned, and try a few different tomatoes. The hanging basket idea sounds good too.Glad you like the name, so many names were already taken [even obscure ones!]Thanks moongrowe, I know you live well 'North of the Border' [or am I mixing you up with karensusan?]but you know, Oxfordshire is not as balmy as you may think [no palm trees here.]we used to live in Devon, and that was much milder.

I've looked on ebay for the mini greenhouse/polytunnel you mentioned, Dungy. I could only see small ones which take one growbag. Is there a bigger version?

Hi canalhopper,
Yes you can get them bigger than you've seen, try the gardencentre or i know gardeners world mag has them advertised in their monthly magazine.
Good gardening to you.

hi guys do remember to secure your little grow houses down to something or you might find they dissapper into your neighbour's garden.here in gloucestershire everything has to be strapped or its off.last summer one guy laughed at me when i told him this the next morning his brand new £120 gazebo was a twisted wreck in my garden.and that was a light wind for us! I would try moneymaker and alicante both have done great for us.Not sure what the blight problem is like where you are but we get it bad here.

rockford, I had to laugh reading your answer! It's a fair point, I hadn't thought of securing a poly tunnel, but can see now that it would be good advice to.Yes, it's a bit windy here too, but NOT wet like Gloucs.So no blight .
Thanks for your advice on tomato plants.

I dont have a greenhouse either (on the list though) and i have grown tomatoes in hanging baskets. last year i had great crop from a variety called 'hundreds and thousands' I have bought some called 'maskotka' for this year which i will plant in two hanging baskets

Just a quicky,
Ref building and how to secure your polytunnel,
If your thinking of building your own poly, i can give you instruction of what to buy ,how to build a secure anchorage etc just ask and i'll point to in the right direction