RECENTLY I TOOK my first trip to the Yukon, where neon-coloured annuals were still blooming in pots and beds in early September. The perennials and evergreens most of us depend upon for winter interest were scarcely in sight. In this land of Diamond Tooth Gertie and Sam McGee, gaiety reigned. The emphasis was on plenty of summer colour and, after that, the residents rely on almost anything to enliven the icy, dimly lit winter months. I saw birdhouses that were towers, all askew, and others that were miniature replicas of log cabins, complete with tiny antlers over the door. The homes sported all shades of the rainbow, and one was even decorated with a painting of fireweed that would bloom long after the real thing had gone to seed. On other buildings there were fabulous murals: scenes of adventure, history and majesty. These landscapes reminded me that the garden is more than its plants, rocks and patios. It's also a place for the imagination. In a former garden, I was inspired to paint a water-stained concrete wall with a faux brick mural, complete with windows, birds and butterflies. Keeping the bricks orderly took patience, but not much skill, thanks to a brick stencil from a hobby store. I left open squares for windows, which revealed a sponge-painted pale blue sky and white clouds. Another stencil, a vine, decorated the wall until a real Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quincefolia) covered it. I used special non-drip paints for outdoor stenciling, but you can also use house paint. Interesting birdhouses are also easy to build. There are plenty of published designs for anyone with minimal carpentry skills, and ready-to-paint ones in craft stores. If you intend the house to be useful, not just decorative, ensure that it has the appropriate entry for your preferred bird. A house wren or chickadee, for instance, prefers a hole slightly wider than an inch. A house that has been glued should be reinforced with screws. My first hand-painted, craft store purchase simply fell out of the tree when the joint failed between hook and house. The wren came and complained an arm's length from me on my porch railing, a place she had never perched before. To avoid these complaints, I now drill two holes through the roof to hold a wire loop. Every house should also have a door for easy cleanout in fall. Paint the house according to your fancy with acrylic or oil paints and top with a waterproof finish such as polyurethane exterior varnish. Where I live, small wooden wishing wells are clever camouflage for well heads, and they do their decorative job all year. A leafless tree becomes a rack of potential, waiting to hold a birdhouse, windsock, whirligig or flag. My multicoloured windsock needed its streamers trimmed by half so they'd be less likely to tangle in the branches. After more than a year of small repairs, it still blows in the wind. A neighbour told me that a place on the road from which she can spot my windsock is her cheerful signal to turn around on her morning jogs. Up north, they know this: lacking leaf or flower, the winter garden is a place where the human spirit blooms. - JENNIFER BENNETT Jennifer Bennett welcomes feedback at jben@ca.inter.net or via acreagelife.editors@producer.com.