If you live in a city, you might have a fire escape, balcony or back patio abutting an alley instead of a yard. Your landscape is iron, wood, brick, concrete. It’s an unlikely place for nature, which makes it an ideal place for an urban garden. An urban container garden, that is.

Anything grown or planted in the ground can be grown or planted in a container, and generally with more ease. In containers, you control the quality of the soil. You minimize the chances of wrangling with weeds. You can relocate pots for aesthetic or growing purposes (such as moving them inside during winter, or into a shadier spot if they’re struggling in the summer heat). And, most important for the amateur urban gardener, you can start small and work your way up.

Now is the time to start planning. Some say Mother’s Day is the safest point to start growing outdoors, but don’t wait until July, when the heat will be too much for plants to establish themselves. Take a look around your living space, inside and outside. Find that spot of utter urban banality and get ready to conjure some horticultural beauty for it. But before you start, ask yourself five basic questions:

Where Do I Start?

Do you want to grow for show, or to feed yourself, or to attract certain birds and insects? Do you want to grow from seed (more work but cheaper) or buy ready-made plants and flowers (easier but more expensive)?

Ambition is one thing, and space is another. Observe how much sun your potential garden space gets, and plant accordingly.

Also, don’t try to mix full-sun and shade plants in the same garden; that kind of high-wire chlorophyll juggling is best left to the experts.

Start with containers that are at least 10 to 12 inches in diameter. If you’re putting containers on a wooden deck or balcony, make sure the structure can hold the weight. (Big pots, filled with soil and watered regularly, can be very heavy.) And think vertically: With limited space, the solution to gardening grandly is to invest in climbers.

“Pole beans grow vertically. Do them on a chain-link fence or up the fire escape, and keep plucking them and eating them the whole summer,” says Matthew Roberts, manager of Ginkgo Gardens, in Washington. “Sunflowers are surprisingly easy. You’re going to want to get the dwarf kind. They grow up 4 to 5 feet. A row of five of those only takes up about 3 feet in length and a foot and a half deep, and they just rock.”

How Do I Make It Pop?

Before planting a container gardener, consider three things: form, texture and color. A good container garden has vegetation of varying heights (taller plants in the middle or in back, surrounded by shorter plants and bordered by drooping, viny plants), as well as flowers that provide a constant or staggered show of blooming. Apart from height, make sure you have a variety of shapes and textures.

“Look to use different leaves,” says John Peter Thompson, chairman of Maryland’s Behnke Nurseries. “Pointy sword-type leaves that grass or gladiolas would give you, fuzzy and round leaves and leaves that are indented or serrated. Looking at texture, some leaves are hard and shiny, some soft and fuzzy. Planting a perennial like lamb’s ear gives you something to touch.”If you want to make a small urban space seem bigger, plant blue or purple flowers, whose colors make them appear to recede.

How Much Time Will It Take?

Check on the garden daily. Walk around it with your morning coffee, looking for disease, infestation or yellowing leaves (a sign of overwatering). If you check on your containers regularly, you’ll be familiar enough with their general appearance to notice any changes.

“If you can devote a couple hours every week, that’ll probably take care of it,”says Kathy Jentz, editor and publisher of Washington Gardener magazine.

Containers dry out quickly, but that doesn’t mean you should stick to a strict watering schedule. Merely feeling the topsoil isn’t enough to tell whether the whole container garden is getting what it needs. The top may be dry while the roots are soaked. Thompson recommends thoroughly soaking a pot and then lifting it to get a feel for its weight. When it becomes significantly lighter, that’s when you water it again.

If you’ll be away for a while, get a neighbor or friend to water your garden, or put water-storing granules (such as Soil Moist) in the dirt to buy yourself some time.

How Do I Not Screw Up?

All first-time gardeners make mistakes. If you know what to avoid from the outset, you’ll have a head start on gardening successfully.

First, don’t seed or plant too far apart. “People put either too few plants in or put them too far apart and wait all season for them to grow together in a container,” Roberts says. “You can put plants closer together than you might think.”

Don’t try to grow plants that aren’t appropriate for your area. Do research about a plant’s sun and soil requirements, and don’t buy it only because you like it or because it reminds you of home. What your mother grew when you were young won’t necessarily thrive in your area.

Make sure your pots have adequate but not too much drainage. All plants need sunlight and water, but they also need fertilizer. Basic Miracle-Gro or a comparable product will do the trick.

Don’t be afraid to visit your local nursery and ask experts. Sign up with Internet discussion groups, read magazines, visit Web sites (GardenWeb at www.gardenweb.com is often cited as a trusted source) or hook up with your local master gardeners.

Contact the University of Rhode Island’s cooperative extension’s garden hotline, at (800) 448-1011, to talk with a master gardener Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., or visit uri.edu/ce.

EDIBLE (above)

For those who want

to snack on their garden

Designed by Ed Bruske, president

of DC Urban Gardeners:

“This is a ‘cool weather’ salad container,

meaning most of the plants thrive

in spring and fall and tend

to not like hot weather

very much. I like the sharper,

peppery flavors of arugula

and mizuna in my salads.

Also, there is a variety

of textures: The foliage has

all different shapes

and leaf structures.”

SHOWY IN THE SHADE (left)

For those who want to impress without full sun

Designed by Jill Gonzalez, manager of seasonal plants

and perennials at Behnke Nurseries, in Maryland:

“Usually with part-sun, you’re a little more limited with selection. I chose this mix because it has some leaf texture and leaf color: coleus with its yellow and orange, and oxalis has a dark leaf with pink-white flowers. For the most part, this one is a pretty low-maintenance container. It likes morning sun and afternoon shade.”

TOUGH TO KILL (left)

For those who don’t

have time to pamper

a garden

Designed by Kathy Jentz, editor and publisher of Washington Gardener: “These thrive on neglect. Select a well-draining soil mixed with coarse playground sand. Top-dress with pea gravel or decorative rocks.

Check on watering needs every two to three days until it is settled in.

After that, you only need

to water during serious drought; overwatering

is the biggest downfall

for these.”

EVENING (below)

For those who enjoy their garden in the twilight hours

Designed by Matthew Roberts, manager of Ginkgo Gardens, in Washington: “Flowers in this pot are various shades of white, cream and pale to show up at night.

The perennials bloom at different times of the season;

the annuals will cover the bare spots and off times.

The purple setcreasea (Purple Heart) and the shocking green lysimachia (Creeping Jenny) keep the garden

from becoming monotonous.”How Does Your Container Garden Grow?

Do you have a shady spot or a niche where you want

to grow some salad veggies?

Four garden experts suggest some plants for 20-  to 24-inch containers for specific needs. If you have no idea

how to create a container garden, follow these recommendations to get started.

EXTRA:Foron-the-spotgardentalkbylocalgardeners,includingadviceongrowingvegetablesincontainers,checkoutGardenBlogat projo.com