Why Hedgehogs Need a Helping Hand

A summer evening in the dales used to end with a rustle in the border and a snuffling shadow crossing the lawn. For many of us, that prickly visitor has become a rare sight. Hedgehog numbers across Britain have fallen sharply in recent decades, and the reasons are rarely dramatic: tidy gardens, sealed fences, busy lanes and the slow disappearance of the rough, untidy corners where insects thrive. The good news is that a country garden is already halfway to being a hedgehog haven. With a little deliberate roughness around the edges, you can turn a few square metres into a genuine lifeline.

Hedgehogs are travellers. A single animal may roam a kilometre or more in a night, and it needs to do so safely. Your garden does not have to be perfect. It simply has to be a place where a hedgehog can eat, drink, rest and move on without harm.

Leave a Wild Corner and Let It Get Scruffy

The single most valuable thing you can do is nothing at all — in one corner, at least. Choose a patch that is out of the way, perhaps behind a shed or beneath a hedge, and stop managing it. Let the grass grow long, allow fallen leaves to gather, and leave a few log piles to rot down slowly. Damp, decaying wood is a nursery for beetles and grubs, and it offers shelter for a nesting hedgehog.

Aim for a layered corner rather than a single heap:

• A base of logs and pruned branches, stacked loosely rather than neatly
• A layer of leaves and grass clippings on top, which will warm as it composts
• Some long grass or a clump of native perennials at the edge for cover
• A gap at ground level so a hedgehog can waddle in without climbing

Resist the urge to tidy this corner in autumn. Hedgehogs may hibernate in it from November, and a fork through the heap in spring can be fatal. If you must move a pile, do it in late April or May, once the animals are awake and active.

Make the Garden a Safe Place to Travel Through

A hedgehog's night is a journey between gardens, and fences are its greatest obstacle. A solid boundary turns a whole street into isolated islands. The remedy is simple: cut a 13cm by 13cm gap at the base of a fence panel, or lift a gravel board slightly. That is roughly the size of a CD case, and it is all a hedgehog needs. Neighbours who do the same create a hedgehog highway along the terrace or lane.

Water is the other great hazard. A steep-sided pond, a cattle trough or even a full bucket can trap a hedgehog and drown it. Add a gently sloping stone or a piece of rough timber as an escape ramp at the edge of any water. If you have a pond, check it at dawn during dry spells, when animals are most likely to be wandering in search of a drink.

Feed the Garden, Not the Hedgehog

It is tempting to put out bread and milk, as our grandparents did. Please do not. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, and milk causes digestive upset that can be serious. Bread fills a belly without nourishing it. If you want to supplement natural food, offer:

• Meat-based cat or dog food — the pâté style, not gravy or jelly
• Cat biscuits, crushed slightly for smaller mouths
• A shallow dish of fresh water, refreshed daily

Put food out at dusk and clear any leftovers by morning, which deters rats and foxes. Better still, improve the natural larder. A garden rich in beetles, caterpillars, slugs and earthworms will feed hedgehogs without any intervention from you. Leave some leaf litter, avoid cutting everything back, and let a patch of lawn grow shaggy.

Stop Using Slug Pellets and Other Poisons

This is not negotiable. Slug pellets containing metaldehyde or ferric phosphate can kill a hedgehog, either directly or by poisoning the slugs and snails it then eats. Hedgehogs are one of the best natural slug controls you could wish for — a single animal can take dozens in a night. If slugs are a genuine problem, use beer traps, hand-pick after rain, or accept some holes in the hostas.

Think about other chemicals too. Weedkillers reduce the insect life that hedgehogs depend on, and rodenticides can pass up the food chain. A garden managed without poison is a garden where wildlife can safely feed.

Watch Out for the Hazards We Create

Country gardens come with machinery, and hedgehogs do not read warning labels. A few habits will prevent most accidents.

• Check long grass before strimming or mowing — walk it over first and look carefully
• Lift and inspect netting, fruit cages and tennis nets each morning; hedgehogs tangle easily
• Cover drains and steep-sided holes, or place a rough ramp inside
• Store garden chemicals and slug bait well out of reach, ideally not at all
• Check bonfires before lighting — rebuild them on the day, not days in advance
• Keep dogs away from a nesting corner, particularly in spring and autumn

If you find a hedgehog out in daylight, especially a small one, it is usually in trouble. Contact a local wildlife rescue for advice and keep it warm in a box with a towel and a shallow dish of water while you wait.

None of this requires a grand plan. Let one corner go wild, cut a small gap in the fence, put out a dish of clean water, and put the slug pellets in the bin. Do that, and the rustle in the border on a warm June evening may well return — a small, prickly reward for a garden that has learned to be a little less tidy.