Charlie Nardozzi

The New Jersey Flower & Garden Show isn’t just a dazzling preview of spring’s sights and scents. It also offers opportunities for gardeners to learn something new as they look forward to the new planting season.

 A major feature of the New Jersey Flower & Garden show is a program of nearly three dozen talks and demonstrations that offer something for every gardener, regardless of age and interest. The adult program at theNew JerseyConvention Centerincludes full-length lectures in the “Gardeners Go to School” seminar program and shorter takes on the latest garden trends in the entertaining “Bouquet of the Day” series.

 One focus of experts’ talks this year concerns the fastest-growing segment of home gardening: raising homegrown food. In the past few seasons, edible gardening has been on the rise and now is a priority for nearly 40 percent of gardeners nationwide, according to the National Gardening Association (NGA), which tracks home gardening trends.

 On Feb. 17 at 12 and 2 p.m. and Feb. 18 at 11 a.m., garden author Charlie Nardozzi shares tips on setting up a vegetable garden, growing popular Italian veggies, understanding organic methods and making edible gardens an attractive feature of home landscapes. He’s got ideas on using the harvest, too, as a contributor to the cookbook “Vegetables from anItalianGarden” – a book that reminded him of foraging for wild mushrooms and dandelion greens as a child on his family’sConnecticutfarm.

 Another speaker will take a look back at the origins ofAmerica’s food heritage. Dean Norton, horticulturalist atMount Vernon, George Washington’s historic estate, talks about the original First Gardener at noon on Feb. 18. As a contributor to the newly published book “Dining with theWashingtons: Historic Recipes, Entertaining and Hospitality,” Norton can offer vivid insights into the style and substance of fine dining in the early days of our country.