Why your garden matters more than you might think

Hedgehogs are in trouble. Numbers have fallen dramatically over recent decades, and while there is no single culprit, the loss of hedgerows, tidy fencing and pesticide use in the wider countryside has hit them hard. Gardens now form a genuine patchwork of habitat, and in many built-up areas they are the best chance hedgehogs have of finding food, shelter and a mate.

The good news is that hedgehogs are not fussy. They do not need a manicured wildlife garden with a pond and a wildflower meadow. They need the basics: somewhere safe to sleep, a reliable supply of insects, and the ability to move from one garden to the next without meeting a brick wall. A few modest changes can turn an ordinary patch into a genuinely useful piece of hedgehog territory.

Cut a hedgehog highway through your boundaries

The single most effective thing you can do is give hedgehogs a way in and out. A hedgehog can travel up to two kilometres in a night, and a solid fence line is a dead end. A small gap at the base of a fence or wall — roughly 13 centimetres square, about the size of a CD case — is enough for a hedgehog to pass through comfortably while keeping pets in and most larger animals out.

• Cut a notch out of the bottom of a wooden panel or gravel board, or lift a couple of bricks from the base of a wall
• If you cannot cut the fence, lift a paving slab or leave a gap under a gate instead
• Talk to your neighbours — a series of connected gardens creates real, usable territory
• Mark the gap with a small sign or a painted stone if you like, and nudge new residents to join in

Many local hedgehog groups encourage people to map these gaps, and once a few neighbours join in, a whole street can become a functioning corridor.

Let one corner go a bit wild

Hedgehogs are foragers, and they do best where there is a little untidiness. You do not need to surrender the whole garden. A single corner left to its own devices will do nicely.

• Let a patch of lawn grow longer through spring and summer, and resist the urge to edge it
• Pile up prunings, leaves and logs — a log pile is a hedgehog buffet and a potential nest site
• Leave a compost heap. It is warm, full of worms and beetles, and a favourite resting place
• Plant native shrubs such as hawthorn, blackthorn or hazel for cover and insect life

Avoid being too thorough with strimming and mowing in these areas, and always check long grass before you cut it. That is a common and entirely avoidable cause of injury.

Food, water and the slug pellet question

Hedgehogs are insectivorous. Beetles, caterpillars, earthworms and slugs make up the bulk of their natural diet, and a wildlife-friendly garden full of leaf litter and undisturbed soil will supply plenty of those. You can supplement this, particularly in dry spells or late autumn, with meaty cat or dog food — the jelly or gravy kind — or a dedicated hedgehog food. Never put out bread and milk. Hedgehogs cannot digest lactose, and it causes serious diarrhoea.

Always leave a shallow dish of fresh water. Hedgehogs get very thirsty, especially in hot weather, and a saucer of water at ground level is one of the simplest lifesavers you can provide.

On slug pellets, the message is simple: don't use them. Metaldehyde pellets have been banned for outdoor use in the UK, but other formulations remain and are still a problem. Hedgehogs eat poisoned slugs and can suffer secondary poisoning, and pellets also kill the beetles and caterpillars they depend on. If slugs are a genuine nuisance, try beer traps, copper tape around pots, nematodes, or simply tolerate a bit of damage. A healthy garden with hedgehogs in it will keep slugs in reasonable check anyway.

Make the everyday hazards safe

A garden that welcomes hedgehogs also needs to be a garden that does not harm them. A quick audit every so often is worth the effort.

• Ponds: add a gently sloping ramp or a pile of stones at one edge so anything that falls in can climb out
• Netting: keep it at least 30 centimetres above the ground, or hedgehogs will tangle in it
• Bonfires: build the pile on the day you plan to light it, and check it thoroughly first — a leaf pile is a perfect hibernation spot
• Drains and gullies: cover open ones, as hedgehogs drop in and cannot get out
• Strimmers and mowers: check long grass before you start, every single time

Shelter, hibernation and winter care

From around October to March, hedgehogs hibernate, and they need a dry, undisturbed nest — a hibernaculum — to survive the cold. A leaf pile tucked behind a shed or under a hedge is ideal. You can also buy or build a simple hedgehog house: a wooden box with a tunnel entrance, filled with dry leaves and placed in a quiet, shaded spot against a wall or fence.

Once a hedgehog settles in, leave it alone. Do not tidy around it, do not lift the roof to check, and keep dogs away. If you find a hedgehog out in the open during freezing weather, or one that appears small, wobbly or injured, contact a local wildlife rescue for advice rather than trying to manage it yourself.

Do all of this and you will have created something quietly valuable: a small, safe, connected patch of the British countryside, right outside your back door.