FOR most city dwellers gardens are a tricky affair. With inner-city space ever more limited, outdoor areas are unlikely to be extensive. Perhaps there’s a small garden to the front or rear, maybe there’s a communal concreted backcourt or dull-as-dishwater drying green. It could be your garden potential doesn’t stretch to much more than a balcony – yet you dream of creating the perfect plot to escape the city’s noise and air pollution. Fret not: we’ve spoken to the experts who claim even the most dedicated urbanite can create their ideal outdoor oasis.

The sky’s the limit

When Mark Ridsdill Smith lived in London he dreamed of owning an allotment where he could grow his own fruit and vegetables. Yet when he discovered the waiting list for said allotment, on which he had spent five static years, had now closed he decided to rethink the potential of his six-by-eight-foot balcony.

Smith begged, borrowed and recycled a variety of container pots and started growing all his own salad and herbs before branching out into tomatoes, runner beans, courgettes, squashes, strawberries and blueberries, all squeezed into the space with the help of ladders, shelves and hanging baskets. The idea for Vertical Veg (www.verticalveg.org.uk), which runs gardening workshops, was born.

The key is thinking in terms of cubic squares rather than linear space, he says. “Often things don’t get sun at ground level, particular if your garden has a wall. But if you move plants higher up they grow better. In a tenement backcourt you could have bigger pots with rhubarb or raspberries, he says, while salads, herbs, beans chard, spinach and kale all adapt well to the Scottish climate. You can start radishes and salad now.

The vertical concept could be used for flowers too; honeysuckle, climbing roses and even ivy could grow up poles while baskets of bedding plants hang above head height. Judy Paul, manager of the Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh’s Edible Gardens project, says all kinds of things can make great containers for vertical growing: “I’ve seen large drawers cleverly stacked up to save space,” she says. “If you need to change a tyre, ask to keep it and use that, or pile a couple up high.”

Edible is beautiful

You don’t need to choose between blooms and produce. "The kitchen garden approach" – in which you plant flowers and herbs such as nasturtiums, mint, sweet peas, chives and marigolds in combination with vegetable crops both to bring in pollinators and discourage pests such as slugs and snails – is proven to improve productivity.

Meanwhile Angeles Rivera, nutritionist and project manager of gardening and cooking charity Food Fruition (foodfruition.org), says flowers themselves can be the crop. She suggests growing edible and beautiful varieties such as bright blue cornflowers, calendula (or marigold), nasturtiums as well some species of pansies and roses, columbine and snap dragon.

Only petals should be consumed and correct identification is key – if in doubt, don’t eat it. But the benefits, she insists, are huge: “From a nutritional point of view you get carbs and amino acids, vitamins A&C and antioxidants. Many of them also aid digestion. They are very easy to grow – people are very surprised.”

Re-green the grey

The really great thing about urban gardening, according to Judy Paul, is how much impact you have just by taking up a single paving stone and filling the space with plants.

“You could take up four slabs and create a mini forest,” she says. The more greenery you have the more it will absorb carbon dioxide and give you oxygen. Every little bit of green space helps.”

Her own tiny front garden, which boasts a Rowan and a Birch tree, is bucking the trend. The number of front gardens totally paved tripled from 1.5 million to 4.5 million between 2005 and 2015, according to the Royal Horticultural Society, which is worried about the effect of urban biodiversity. But garden designer Matt Jackson (www.mattjacksongardens.uk) has a practical solution if it’s the only option due to parking restrictions, suggesting you create a “living driveway”. Two paved strips can be driven up while the rest is filled with gravel. “Then you fill that gravel with plants that can cope with the dry situation like lavenders and thyme,” he says.

“Even if you do have a utilitarian or concreted space you add nice big planters (that don’t need watered as often) and fill them to the brim with bedding plants or bulbs so they look abundant.”

Go a bit wild

Not every good gardener is aiming for a neat, well-weeded border. Plants traditionally considered weeds are being embraced by some; why not leave that clump of nettles well alone and harvest the leaves to make nettle tea, or oven bake the fresh spring leaves as crisps?

Leaving your garden a bit rough and ready round the edges creates a great environment for many insects, mini-beasts and even hedgehogs and bats. The RSPB advises leaving lawns long, and creating woodpiles or leaving old foliage as somewhere creatures can hide away. Encourage frogs with a miniature pond – Mark Ridsdill made one out of an old washing up bowl.

Judy Paul advises: “Try a mini wild flower meadow – mark it out with a wavy shape and mow round that. You can even just grow one in a large container.” Leave the dandelions, she suggests: bees love them and the kids can enjoy blowing the seed heads.

Something for the kids

Creating the small family garden requires a fine balance, says Matt Jackson, who acknowledges the tension between making it pretty and providing fun for kids. He suggests homemade climbing frames, and if there’s room, a sunken trampoline – meaning there’s both less far to fall and the ugly structure is disguised. Simple sheltered areas where the family can still spend time together outdoors even when it’s raining are great too.

“Teenagers love to loll around in a shelter at the bottom of the garden, especially if there’s wifi so they can also Snapchat,” he says. “All too often we’ve removed the space that teenagers used to have in their lives to daydream and there is no better place to daydream than a garden.”

Younger children will relish the challenge of building “a bug hotel” to host mini-beasts using pallets, bricks, sticks, straw and moss. Or make a mud kitchen, using secondhand worktops at children’s height, old pots, pans and wooden spoons – just add soil and water. While they toil at the stove, you’re free to get on with the watering. Job done.

In the know

You just put the seeds in the soil and add water and sunshine, right? It sounds so simple, but if you’re not sure where to start the ever-increasing number of urban community garden can help. The Woodlands Community Garden (woodlandscommunitygarden.org.uk) in Glasgow’s west end hosts weekly sessions, while in Edinburgh the Royal Botanical Gardens Edible Gardening Project (www.rbge.org.uk/whats-on/ediblegardening), runs workshops and offers community plots.