James Holloway
The hedgehog is one of the most welcome visitors a British garden can have, and one of the most useful. A single adult will hoover up beetles, caterpillars and slugs through the night, working quietly along borders and under shrubs while you sleep. Yet numbers have fallen sharply over the past few decades, and the creatures that do turn up in our gardens often struggle to find the basics: somewhere safe to sleep, clean water, and a reliable supply of natural food. The good news is that a hedgehog-friendly garden is usually a low-maintenance one. You do not need to rewild the whole plot or spend a fortune. A few deliberate scruffy corners, a decent log pile and a change of habit here and there will do far more than any gadget.
Leave a wild corner or two
Hedgehogs are creatures of edges and cover. They feel exposed crossing a neat, close-mown lawn, and they will rarely linger where there is nowhere to tuck themselves away. The single most valuable thing you can do is to stop tidying part of your garden.
- Let a patch of grass grow long between spring and late summer, ideally along a boundary or behind a shed where it will not offend anyone.
- Leave fallen leaves in a corner over winter rather than bagging them up. Leaf litter is insulation, bedding and a hunting ground all at once.
- Allow a little die-back in the border. Seed heads and hollow stems shelter the insects that hedgehogs feed on.
- Resist the urge to strim or mow these patches without checking first. Hedgehogs sleep during the day, often in long grass, and a quick glance before you start saves lives.
If your garden is small, a wild corner can be no bigger than a metre square. Two or three of them scattered about are better than one large area, as they give a hedgehog options as it moves around the plot.
Build a proper log pile
A log pile is the classic hedgehog habitat, and for good reason. Stacked timber, slowly rotting, holds damp conditions and a steady supply of beetles, woodlice and worms. It is also warm and dry inside, which makes it an ideal daytime nest or hibernation site.
Site it in dappled shade or part shade, ideally against a fence or hedge, and build it from a mix of materials: hardwood logs, a few softwood offcuts, some old bricks or broken pots, and a generous handful of dry leaves and hedge trimmings. Pile it loosely rather than tightly — gaps matter, and a tightly packed stack becomes a soggy, useless block. Aim for something roughly a metre across and half a metre high, and leave it undisturbed. Add to it each autumn rather than rebuilding it, and do not be tempted to move it in winter, when a hedgehog may well be asleep inside. A pile of stones or a brash heap of prunings beside it will suit frogs and beetles too, which is no bad thing.
Water, food and the slug pellet question
Hedgehogs get most of their moisture from their prey, but in hot, dry spells they become thirsty, and a shallow dish of fresh water is one of the kindest things you can put out. Use a saucer or a low plant pot base rather than anything deep, and top it up daily. Never put out milk or bread — hedgehogs cannot digest lactose and milk will make them ill.
If you want to offer supplementary food, a meat-based cat or dog food, or a proprietary hedgehog food, is fine in small amounts. Mealworms are popular but should be an occasional treat rather than a staple, as too many can cause problems with bone development in young hedgehogs.
The most important change is what you do not put down. Slug pellets are lethal to hedgehogs, either directly or through the poisoned slugs they eat. Metaldehyde-based pellets have been banned for outdoor use in the UK, but other formulations remain available and are no safer for wildlife. If slugs are a problem, pick them off after dark by torchlight, encourage birds and frogs, or simply accept a little damage. A garden with a few nibbled hostas and a healthy hedgehog is a better bargain than a garden with neither.
Make your boundaries passable
Hedgehogs roam widely at night, often covering a kilometre or more, and fences with concrete gravel boards stop them dead. A gap roughly 13 centimetres square — about the size of a CD case — is enough for a hedgehog to pass through but too small for most pets to follow.
- Cut a notch at the base of a fence panel or lift a gravel board slightly at each boundary.
- Leave a gap under gates where the ground is firm.
- Check ponds and steep-sided water features for an escape route. A gently sloping stone, a ramp of rough timber or a piece of chicken wire trailing into the water gives a hedgehog something to climb out on.
- Cover drains, and be careful with netting, which tangles legs and spines alarmingly easily.
If you can persuade a neighbour to make matching gaps, so much the better. A series of connected gardens becomes a proper hedgehog highway, and the difference to local numbers can be remarkable.
Think ahead to autumn and winter
Hedgehogs hibernate between roughly November and March, though mild winters mean some stay active. A purpose-built hedgehog house, placed in a quiet, dry spot with the entrance facing away from prevailing wind, offers a reliable bolthole. So does a simple lean-to of bricks and timber tucked under a shed or behind a shrub.
Two seasonal jobs matter more than any other. First, check bonfires thoroughly before lighting them, moving the whole pile a metre or two if you can, and lighting only one side. Second, avoid disturbing any pile of leaves, logs or compost between late October and April. If you do accidentally uncover a hibernating hedgehog, cover it back over gently with the same material and leave it be. Do those small things, keep the water topped up, and your garden will quietly become one of the best hedgehog addresses on the street.
