My garden decor advice for Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has three lifesize, carved wooden elephants in his garden, given to him by his wife for his 60th birthday. But here’s a warning for them both, for when they return from Sardinia to join their elephants again: garden sculptures are horribly addictive. Once you have one, you want more – and most of the good ones are ridiculously expensive unless, like my husband and me, you improvise.

My husband John, who used to be a fashion designer and manufacturer, has taken to making iron sculptures, although he’s too modest to call himself a sculptor. I draw stuff, he says, and Sked (Malcolm Sked, the local blacksmith) makes them. So far, John has created a huge wrought-iron pagoda with a floral explosion on top and two urns, one containing a giant metal phormium whose rusty leaves glow red in the evening sun and wave in the wind. There’s also a gigantic fantasy plant with spathe-like white flowers and enormous heart-shaped leaves growing out of an old truck wheel embedded in a block of Cotswold stone. This was immortalised on film when we were making Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen. Two weeks later a gale wrenched the 8ft leaves from the wheel and sent them flying across the garden. ‘Ah,’ said John, ‘I meant to concrete them in. Bit of a rush job for the camera.’

Even before John took to DIY art, our garden sculpture collection was impressive.