Why Your Garden Matters More Than Ever

Hedgehog numbers have fallen sharply across Britain over the past few decades. The countryside has become less forgiving, with larger fields, fewer hedgerows and more traffic, and it is gardens that have quietly become one of their strongest refuges. A street where a handful of neighbours leave a gap in the fence and a dish of water out can support a surprising number of hedgehogs. The changes needed are small, inexpensive and usually a one-off job.

The key is to stop thinking of your garden as an isolated plot and start thinking of it as a link in a chain. A hedgehog may travel a kilometre or more in a single night, moving between gardens to find food, water and somewhere to nest. If every boundary is sealed, that chain is broken and the animal is trapped in a patch too small to survive in.

Create a Hedgehog Highway

The single most useful thing you can do is cut a hole in the bottom of your fence or wall. A gap roughly 13cm square — about the size of a CD case — is wide enough for a hedgehog and far too small for most dogs and cats to follow.

• Cut through the gravel board at ground level, or lift a couple of bricks from the base of a wall.
• Keep the gap clear of leaves, twigs and debris, which will otherwise block it within a season.
• Talk to your neighbours. A gap on one side only creates a dead end; a run of gaps along the street creates a genuine route.
• If you rent, or the fence belongs to a neighbour, explain what you are doing — most people are happy once they understand the reason.

Mark the hole on both sides if you like — a small painted hedgehog stencil is a friendly way to let neighbours know why the fence has a notch in it.

Water, Food and the Things to Avoid

Hedgehogs are often thirsty, particularly in hot, dry spells and when they are feeding young. Leave a shallow dish of fresh water — no more than 10cm deep — and add a few pebbles so that a small animal can climb out if it falls in. Change it daily.

Supplementary food helps, especially in autumn. Meaty cat or dog food, or a proper hedgehog food, is ideal. Never put out bread and milk: hedgehogs cannot digest lactose and it causes serious diarrhoea. Fish-based foods are usually refused, so stick to meat or poultry.

Please do not use slug pellets. Pellets containing metaldehyde were banned for outdoor use in Great Britain in 2022, but other molluscicides remain on sale and they are still a serious hazard. Hedgehogs eat slugs and snails, and a poisoned slug is a poisoned hedgehog. The same applies to any pellets eaten directly. Encourage natural slug control instead: frogs, toads, ground beetles, slow worms and birds will all do the job in a garden with a bit of untidiness and no chemicals. A night-time patrol with a torch and a bucket is far kinder than a scatter of blue pellets.

Give Them Somewhere to Sleep

Hedgehogs need shelter by day and a safe nest for hibernation between roughly November and March. A corner left a little wild will do more good than any bought product.

• Log piles and leaf heaps in a quiet corner make ideal nesting sites — leave them undisturbed through the winter.
• A compost heap is a classic hedgehog bedroom. Turn it gently, or not at all between autumn and spring.
• A purpose-built hedgehog house should sit in shade, with the entrance facing away from the prevailing wind, on a dry base with a little dry leaves inside for bedding.
• Long grass and dense shrubs provide cover for travelling hedgehogs and nesting material.

Always check before you move a pile of leaves, cut back a hedge or start a strimmer in long grass. A sleeping hedgehog will not run away.

Make Your Garden Safe

• Ponds: add a gently sloping ramp or a shallow planted edge so that a hedgehog can climb out. They swim well but drown when they cannot get a grip on a vertical side.
• Drains, gullies and holes: cover them with mesh or a grille. Hedgehogs fall in and cannot climb out.
• Netting: keep it at least 30cm above the ground and check it daily; hedgehogs become badly tangled in loose, draped netting. Rigid mesh is safer than soft.
• Bonfires: build them on the day you plan to light them, and check the heap thoroughly first. A pile of wood left standing for a week is a hedgehog magnet.
• Strimmers and mowers: walk the long grass first. Sadly, garden machinery is one of the most common causes of hedgehog injuries.
• Dogs: most are harmless, but keep an eye on a dog that shows too much interest in a visiting hedgehog.

Helping Through the Seasons

In spring and summer, keep water available and avoid disturbing nests in long grass. If you find a nest while gardening, cover it back over and work elsewhere for a few weeks. In autumn, a young hedgehog needs to reach around 450g to stand a good chance of surviving hibernation; if you see one out in daylight, or one that looks small and unsteady in October or November, contact a local wildlife rescue for advice rather than trying to manage it yourself.

Through winter, leave the leaf piles, compost and hedgehog houses alone. And if you ever see a hedgehog active in daylight, covered in flies, or lying out in the open, something is wrong — it needs help quickly. Otherwise, enjoy the quiet satisfaction of a garden that has become part of a living network, one small gap in the fence at a time.