Why Hedgehogs Need Our Country Gardens

Hedgehogs have declined sharply in Britain over the past few decades, and the reasons are not hard to find: larger fields with fewer hedgerows, tidier and more paved gardens, busier roads, and the widespread use of slug pellets. A smallholding or cottage garden with rough grass, a mature hedge and a compost heap can be a genuine lifeline. A single hedgehog may roam a kilometre or more in a night, so what you do on your patch ripples out across the parish.

The encouraging part is that helping them asks very little of you. Mostly it means doing slightly less — leaving a corner unkempt, holding back on chemicals, and pausing before you strike a match or pull a strimmer cord. Here is how to make a country garden properly hedgehog-friendly.

Leave a Wild Corner and Resist the Tidy Urge

Hedgehogs need somewhere dry and sheltered to sleep by day and to hibernate through winter. A pile of logs, a heap of prunings, a stack of leaves against a shed wall or the base of a thick hedge will all do nicely. Aim for a mound roughly the size of a wheelbarrow, tucked out of the prevailing wind, with an undisturbed core.

If you would rather offer something purpose-built, a hedgehog house placed in a quiet corner works well. Set it on bare earth or short grass, cover the roof with leaves or bark, and face the entrance away from the south-west. Once occupied between November and March, leave it strictly alone.

• Let a patch of lawn grow long through summer — insects thrive and hedgehogs forage happily in it.
• Keep a rough grass margin or wildflower strip along hedge bottoms.
• Plant or lay native hedging: hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, holly, field maple and dog rose all provide food and nesting cover.
• Leave a few dandelions and buttercups be — they are useful early nectar for the insects hedgehogs eat.
• Skip the strimmer in that wild corner entirely, or check it thoroughly first.

Water, Food and the Slug Pellet Question

Hedgehogs are often thirsty, especially in hot, dry spells, and they cannot manage a steep-sided bird bath or a butler sink. A plant saucer no more than two or three centimetres deep is ideal, with a few pebbles inside so anything that falls in can climb back out. Refresh it daily. Never put out bread and milk: it causes diarrhoea and can be genuinely dangerous to them.

If you want to supplement natural foraging, offer meat-based cat or dog food — not fish, not gravy — or a proper hedgehog food, in a shallow dish under a covered feeding station so cats and foxes do not clear it first. Mealworms are fine as an occasional treat but should not form the bulk of the diet. Autumn feeding is especially valuable, helping hogs lay down the fat they need to survive hibernation.

Now for the difficult subject. Slug pellets are bad news for hedgehogs, whether they eat the pellets or the poisoned slugs. Metaldehyde was withdrawn from outdoor use in the UK in 2022, and ferric phosphate pellets have also been linked to hedgehog deaths in recent studies. If you can garden without them, please do. Hand-pick slugs after rain, sink beer traps with a lid, use nematodes on vulnerable beds, and encourage frogs, toads, slow-worms and thrushes to do the work for you.

Hedgehog Highways and Safe Movement Between Plots

Hedgehogs are determined travellers, and an isolated garden — however lovely — is far less useful than one connected to its neighbours. The answer is a hedgehog highway: a gap roughly 13 centimetres square cut into the bottom of a fence panel, wall or gate. That is big enough for a hog and small enough to deter most pets and rabbits.

• Cut one gap per boundary, and line them up so they form a route through the plot.
• If a wall is solid, a short tunnel beneath the gate will serve.
• Keep gravel boards and the base of fences clear of rubble and dense ivy that blocks the way.
• Chat to neighbours — a street of linked gardens is worth far more than one perfect smallholding.

Bonfires, Strimmers and Other Hidden Dangers

A heap of wood waiting for a bonfire is a hedgehog’s idea of a five-star hotel. Build your bonfire on the day you intend to light it, or move the whole pile a metre or two and check underneath with a torch and gloved hands before applying the flame. Listen for a distinctive huffing sound.

Other everyday hazards are worth watching for too:

• Strimmers and mowers — check long grass carefully from May to July, when hoglets are about.
• Netting — keep fruit, pea and football netting at least 30 centimetres off the ground, or check it daily for tangled animals.
• Ponds — fit a gently sloping edge, a ramp or a submerged plank so anything that falls in can climb out.
• Drains, cattle grids and steep-sided troughs — cover or provide an escape route.
• Dogs — keep them away from known nesting areas, especially in the evenings.

A Simple Year-Round Routine

• Spring: check before mowing or strimming; leave the wild corner alone; top up the water dish.
• Summer: keep shallow water available every day; watch out for hoglets; check netting.
• Autumn: put out supplementary food; leave leaf piles and log stacks; check bonfire material; build or clear a hedgehog house.
• Winter: do not disturb nests; check water has not frozen over each morning.

None of this demands much time or money. A gap in a fence, a saucer of water and a corner left to go a bit feral will do more for your local hedgehogs than any amount of expensive kit — and you will likely be rewarded with the sight of one snuffling about the borders at dusk.