“So many people kept saying, ‘There’s no place for me to garden,'” said Barbara Hobens Feldt, describing why she finally wrote a book on urban gardening. Speaking recently at Barnes & Noble in Greenwich Village about her book “Garden Your City” (Taylor Trade Publishing), she listed spaces such as terraces, stoops, tree beds, windowsills, fire escapes, roofs, and community gardens. “There are plenty of places to garden,” she said.

Her book focuses on where and how to garden in limited spaces. “An entire row of containers would be perfect up there,” she said, pointing to a recessed space of empty shelves near the ceiling of the bookstore’s second floor: “Plants don’t have to be on the ground.” A simple planter, she said, can transform an urban space.

Offering “how to” advice from getting basic supplies to sowing seeds, the book offers resources and ideas for turning a city dweller into a green thumb. Her goal, she said, was to get knowledge into the hands of people who want to garden in the city.

She brings years of experience as director of Manhattan Botanical Garden, an all-volunteer organization promoting gardening with 45 decentralized “satellite” gardens around Manhattan. In 1994 she began a garden on the dilapidated Pier 84, next to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. When the pier collapsed in 1998, the plants were saved and dispersed in different gardens, including DeWitt Clinton Park on West 52nd Street and Eleventh Avenue. The Hudson River Park Trust is building a new public pier scheduled for completion next year.

The Knickerbocker asked Ms. Feldt about rooftop gardening: “I highly recommend getting an engineer to look at your roof to figure out what it can hold.” As for gardening on balconies or fire escapes, she said, “Don’t block the fire escape route” and beware of liability by asking of each container, “What will happen if this turns over and falls?” She suggested not leaving window boxes dangling over the sidewalk: “Window boxes can get really heavy.” Instead, place them over the inside of the railing so if they do fall, they only travel 2 feet down, and at most some dirt might fall on pedestrians.

About growing vegetables in the city, she said, “Make sure you know how many full hours of sun you have in the space. If you have just four hours of sun, you’re probably not going to be happy with your vegetable harvest.” Try growing lettuce, she suggested, which doesn’t require as much sunlight.

Ms. Feldt described different interests people bring to community gardens. Some want to grow only specific vegetables or flowers. One man once told her, “Well, I would love to garden, but I only do roses.” He began to cultivate them at the north end of DeWitt Clinton Park.

The audience laughed when she said some people even like to grow weeds. She recalled pointing out weeds in someone’s plot and being told, “No, I want them there.” Asked about the uses of weeds, the author said their roots can be used medicinally, and the tops of some, like dandelions, are edible in salads: “But you better know what you’re eating.”

The book also contains a case study of the reconstruction of an old orchard from the mid-1800s, in which she helped plant two peach trees, an apple tree, and a cherry tree.

The Knickerbocker asked Ms. Feldt, “Why garden in the city?” She replied, “Because we need it so badly, we need it to rest our eyes on. We need to look at flowers to de-stress us.” She also said gardens and trees show that people care for a place, which helps preserve it. “What do you do if you want to save a place? You beautify it.”

***

EAST VILLAGE SOUND In the All People’s Garden on East 3rd Street on Monday, the Hungry March Band was entertaining the neighborhood. This baton-twirling brass brotherhood of musicians had swung down the block from Tribes Gallery, where a crowd was celebrating the birthday of legendary saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker (1920-55).

Musicians, poets, and artists at the Tribes Gallery looked down from the second floor to watch the Hungry March Band perform in another garden, the one behind the gallery. The band’s songs that evening included an uplifting jazz composition called “Bumper to Bumper,” composed by trumpeter Jeremy Mushlin. “I just got married a week ago,” said Mr. Mushlin, whose other interests include performing Jamaican ska music. “So I think my music has wedding energy.” Others in the Hungry March Band included twirler Sara Valentine, who was also a curator of the children’s component of the Howl! Festival.

Among the poetry that evening, Michael Carter read a poem called “The Spiral” from the balcony, while the band down in the garden accented his poem with extemporaneous music.

Inside the gallery, T. Charnan Lewis curated an exhibit called “Birds of a Feather Flock” inspired by Charlie Parker, whose nickname was “Bird.” The show included “Here for You,” a kinetic mobile made of seed pods, wax, and silver leaf by Tribes Gallery director Teressa Valla; a self-portrait by Ryan Compton titled “Owl Eyes”; and Basquiat-like works on canvas by Brian Leo, who has a show called “Garage Pop Surrealism” opening September 9 at Capla Kesting Fine Art in Brooklyn.

Ms. Lewis received her M.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004. She told the Knickerbocker that many artists in the show, including Mr. Compton, attended MICA. “It’s a Baltimore invasion of New York.”

What’s a birthday celebration without cake?

Charlie Parker would have been 85. The gallery’s intern, Virginie de Rocquigny, was turning 21. The icing on the chocolate chip cake wished them both a happy birthday.