During the harsh winter months, anyone’s garden can go from lush and green to brown and dying.

Luckily, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, A Smithgall Woodland Legacy, in Gainesville is offering classes to combat and prevent this particular problem.

The three winter-related sessions to choose from are: winter interest, container gardening and propagation. Their goal is to “educate the public about gardening practices through the use of plants, design and overall enjoyment,” said Wanda Cannon, the education and volunteer coordinator for the Smithgall garden.

Each class meets from 10 a.m. to noon at the Gainesville branch of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, at 1911 Sweetbay Drive, in Gainesville. The class costs $24 per class for Garden members and $29 for nonmembers.

The Feb. 27 winter interest class will focus on adding plants to the garden that can withstand the chilly weather and stay green, like certain types of shrubs or evergreen plants.

“This class will provide an overview of plants to add to your garden to provide winter interest,” Mildred Fockele said. “I will cover trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs to use in the garden and how to use them.”

Fockele is the instructor for the course, as well as the director of the Smithgall garden.

“Hopefully, attendees will learn some new plants, get ideas for how to use them in their gardens and look at the garden in winter in a new light.”

According to the Smithgall garden’s website, the class will include an outdoor tour of the garden if weather permits.

The registration deadline for winter interest class is Feb. 24.

If you’re interested in creating gardens in your home, outside the harsh elements, the container gardening class might be for you.

The class will meet March 5 with instructor Beth Perdue, the senior horticulturist at the center.

“My class ... is directed toward people who are interested in adding season annual color to outdoor containers around their homes,” she said.

Participants will learn what plants work well in a container, how to design a successful container garden and basic container guidelines.

“This information is meant to teach people how to create successful container gardens of their own,” said Perdue, who added the class information is useful year-round.

The deadline to sign up is March 2.

The container gardening and winter interest class will be held in the garden event room at the Smithgall garden visitor center.

The final class to meet will be the propagation class on March 12 in the garden greenhouse.

“This is a class for people who are interested in learning more about propagating their own plants at home, as well as how we go about producing more plants (at the garden),” said horticulture manager Ethan Guthrie, who will teach the class. “Plant propagation is basically creating new plants from a variety of sources including seed, cuttings, bulbs, division, etc.”

Guthrie said the class will mostly focus on the seeds and cutting part of propagation.

The propagation class is useful this time of year, because growing season is coming up.

“We will do some hands-on cutting propagation, and I will have many examples to show from our greenhouse,” Guthrie said.

The registration deadline is March 9.

For more information, visit the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s website at www.atlantabg.org or call the class registrar, 404-591-1542 or leave a voicemail to 404-876-5859 ext. 2555 to sign up.