Why Small Gardens Matter

Hedgehogs have declined sharply in Britain over the past few decades, and the reasons are rarely dramatic. Tidier gardens, solid fences, paved front drives and the widespread use of slug pellets have quietly removed the food, water and shelter that hedgehogs once found in ordinary streets. The good news is that they are remarkably adaptable, and a modest suburban plot can genuinely make a difference.

A hedgehog may roam a kilometre or more in a single night, moving between gardens as it hunts for beetles, caterpillars, slugs and earthworms. If your patch offers a drink, some cover and a safe route through to next door, it becomes part of a network. The changes are small, cheap and often involve doing less rather than more.

Leave a Wild Corner

The single most useful thing you can do is to resist tidying one area of the garden. A metre or two of deliberate scruffiness, tucked behind a shed or under a hedge, gives hedgehogs somewhere to rest during the day and to nest over winter.

• Pile up fallen leaves and twigs in a quiet corner and leave them. The decaying heap teems with beetles and grubs, which is exactly what a hedgehog wants to eat.
• Stack a few untreated logs loosely, leaving gaps between them. Log piles stay dry inside and are ideal daytime cover.
• Let a patch of lawn grow long through the summer, or allow a strip along a boundary to go unmown. Long grass supports the invertebrates that hedgehogs feed on.
• Leave seed heads and hollow stems standing over winter rather than cutting everything down in autumn.

If you do need to cut back, do it gently and check first. Long grass and leaf piles are prime hedgehog resting spots, so strim from the outside inwards and look carefully before each sweep.

Build a Hedgehog Highway

Fences, walls and gravel boards turn gardens into small islands, and a hedgehog cannot climb them. Adult hedgehogs only need a gap about 13cm square — roughly the size of a CD case — to pass through comfortably.

Cut or lift a small opening at ground level in a fence panel, or dig away a shallow channel under a gate. If you have a gravel board, simply remove a 13cm section and replace it with a short tunnel of bricks or a piece of pipe. Where possible, speak to neighbours and create connected gaps along the whole terrace or row. One garden on its own is a dead end; six joined together become a proper habitat corridor.

Hedgehog houses, if you use one, should sit in a shaded, quiet spot with the entrance facing away from the prevailing wind. Line it with dry leaves, not hay, which holds damp and can go mouldy.

Food and Water

Hedgehogs are opportunistic feeders and get most of what they need from a healthy garden, so anything you put out should be a supplement rather than a diet. A shallow dish of fresh water is genuinely one of the most valuable things you can provide, especially in dry spells when ground beetles and worms are hard to find.

• Use a dish no more than 3cm deep, with a stone or two inside so a small hedgehog can climb out if it slips.
• Offer meat-based cat or dog food in jelly or gravy — chicken, turkey or beef, never fish.
• Spike it with a purpose-made hedgehog food if you prefer, and take the dish in at night to avoid attracting cats and foxes.
• Never leave out bread and milk. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, and bread has no nutritional value for them.

Mealworms are fine as an occasional treat, but not as a staple. Fed in quantity they can cause serious bone problems, so keep them to a small pinch.

Hidden Hazards After Dark

Most hedgehog casualties in gardens are entirely preventable, and a few simple habits will make your plot far safer.

• Skip slug pellets altogether. Even the current formulations harm the slugs and snails that make up a hedgehog's natural diet, and poisoned slugs can be eaten by hedgehogs. Hand-picking or a beer trap does the job without the risk.
• Check before strimming or mowing. Long grass is a favourite daytime refuge.
• Make ponds escape-proof. Hedgehogs can swim but cannot climb steep sides. Add a gently sloping stone, a piece of ramp or a shallow beach at one end so anything that falls in can get out.
• Eliminate loose netting. Fruit netting, pea netting and sports nets tangle hedgehogs badly. Keep netting taut and at least 30cm above the ground, and put it away when not in use.
• Build bonfires on the day. A heap of sticks left standing for a week is an irresistible nest site. Move the pile before lighting, or rebuild it in a fresh spot.
• Cover drains, steep-sided holes and cold frames, and cut plastic can rings before binning them.

Shelter Through the Year

Hedgehogs hibernate roughly from November to March, though they wake periodically and may move nests. A hedgehog needs to reach around 450–600g to survive the winter, which is why autumn feeding helps so much — a small hedgehog out in cold weather is worth a dish of cat food and some water.

During hibernation, leave your wild corner entirely alone. No tidying, no digging, no moving log piles. Come spring, you can have a gentle clear-up once the weather has warmed and any residents have moved on.

Beyond that, the best approach is simply to garden with a bit of tolerance. A few holes in the leaves, a rougher edge and a shallower pond are a small price for the chance of a hedgehog snuffling across the lawn at dusk.