Sandbags Are the New Garden Gnome and I Will Not Be Told Otherwise
Our style correspondent on the hottest look of autumn 2026.
Sandbags, curated. Photo: Richard Humphrey, “Sandbags by the front doors on South Brink, Wisbech - geograph.org.uk - 3773277”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Walk down any Perth street this week and you will see it: the sandbag, artfully stacked, sometimes with a little plant on top. It is the autumn’s defining accessory.
Mine have names. I’ve arranged them in a pleasing chevron. My neighbour has done his in a pyramid, which is frankly showing off.
When the storms are gone, I shall keep mine. They will be my garden’s lasting monument to the autumn we all spent looking out of the window, saying ‘it’s getting worse’.
The real story: Fictional.
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