Why Your Garden Matters More Than You Think

Hedgehogs are in trouble. Numbers in Britain have fallen sharply over recent decades, and while there are many reasons for the decline, the loss of good habitat is one of the biggest. Roads, tidy fences, slug pellets and manicured lawns have all made life harder for a creature that needs nothing more exotic than a bit of rough cover, a decent meal and somewhere quiet to sleep.

Here is the encouraging part: gardens can genuinely help. Researchers working on hedgehog populations have found that suburban and village gardens often hold surprisingly healthy numbers, and that a single well-managed garden can sit at the centre of several animals' nightly rounds. A hedgehog may travel a kilometre or more in a single night, so yours doesn't need to be perfect — it just needs to be passable, and ideally connected to its neighbours.

Start With a Way In

You can create the finest hedgehog habitat in the county and it will count for nothing if nobody can reach it. Solid fences and walls now fragment gardens into islands that hedgehogs cannot cross.

The simplest fix is a hedgehog highway: a gap measuring roughly 13 centimetres square — about the size of a CD case — cut or dug beneath a fence panel or wall. A hedgehog only needs to pass through, not stroll upright.

• Cut one gap in a boundary fence, ideally at ground level where the earth is soft.
• Talk to your neighbours — one gap on its own is less useful than four in a row.
• Keep the gap clear of brambles, long grass and plant pots that will clog it up.
• Mark the edges with a spare brick if you like, but leave the middle open.

Prickly native hedging such as hawthorn, blackthorn or beech makes a far better boundary than a fence, offering food, cover and a route through all at once.

Provide Somewhere to Sleep

A hedgehog needs a dry, quiet, sheltered spot to spend the day — and somewhere to hibernate from roughly November through to March or April, depending on the weather.

You don't need to buy anything fancy. A log pile in a shady corner, a heap of leaves left undisturbed, or a compost heap that you don't turn between October and spring will all be used. If you would rather have something more deliberate, a simple wooden box with a 13-centimetre entrance tunnel and a dry, draught-free chamber works beautifully. Place it against a wall or under a shed, with the entrance facing away from prevailing wind, and cover the top with a layer of dry leaves or a piece of felt.

Whatever you provide, leave it alone once winter arrives. A disturbed hibernating hedgehog may wake, burn through precious fat reserves and struggle to survive the cold.

Water Is Overlooked — and Essential

Hedgehogs drink far more than most people realise, particularly in hot, dry spells and while they are nursing young. A shallow dish of fresh water, no deeper than about four centimetres, can be one of the most valuable things in your garden.

• Use a shallow, heavy dish so it cannot be tipped over.
• Add a few clean pebbles so that any small creature that falls in can climb out.
• Top it up and rinse it daily — stagnant water carries disease.
• Keep it well away from a pond unless the pond has a gentle sloping edge or a ramp.

If you have a pond, check the edges. Hedgehogs swim well but tire quickly, and steep-sided water is a killer. A strip of sturdy netting or a piece of wood angled from the water to the bank gives them a way out.

Feeding: Right Food, Right Place, Right Time

Hedgehogs are nocturnal foragers, so put food out at dusk and clear any leftovers each morning. A wet, meaty cat or dog food — chicken or turkey rather than fish — is a dependable option, as is a commercially prepared hedgehog food.

What to avoid is just as important:

• Milk and bread — hedgehogs are lactose intolerant and this causes serious digestive problems.
• Fish-based foods — a common cause of stomach upsets.
• Mealworms as a staple — fine as an occasional treat, but they are low in calcium and can cause bone problems if fed heavily.
• Peanuts, sunflower seeds and raisins — not appropriate food for a hedgehog.

A feeding station made from a plastic storage box, with a 13-centimetre hole cut in one side, keeps cats and foxes out and shelters the food from rain. Weigh it down with a brick.

Make the Whole Garden Safer

Attracting hedgehogs means protecting them once they arrive. The main hazards are all avoidable.

• Never use slug pellets. Slug killers are deadly to hedgehogs, either eaten directly or through poisoned slugs. Encourage frogs, thrushes and beetles instead.
• Check before you cut or move. Strimmers, mowers and loppers injure thousands of hedgehogs each year. Walk the area first, and leave long grass edges unmown.
• Build bonfires on the day. A heap of branches left standing is an irresistible nest site. Move the pile before lighting it.
• Deal with netting. Football nets and loose garden netting tangle hedgehogs badly. Store nets off the ground and check them before use.
• Leave a wild corner. A patch of long grass, a few nettles and a leaf pile will support the beetles, caterpillars and worms that form the bulk of a hedgehog's natural diet.

Do a handful of these things and you may never see your visitor — hedgehogs are shy, and most visits happen between midnight and dawn. But a dish licked clean, a dropping on the lawn or a rustle in the borders will tell you the garden has gained a resident. That is a genuinely good thing to be part of.