A fantastic way to encourage prickly visitors into your garden is by embracing the wild! Give a section of your garden back to nature and it can provide natural insect food and nesting materials for hedgehogs.
1. Choose your wild patch
It could be a corner at the back or a strip along the side of your garden.
2. Put your feet up
The next step is to do… nothing! Leave your wild patch undisturbed, no need to mow, strim or use any weedkillers or fertilisers. Time to put the kettle on.
If you have a bit more energy and enthusiasm then Autumn is a perfect time to sow some perennial native wildflowers (meaning it grows each year without you having to re-seed it). Sowing just now gives them a chance to start growing when conditions are still warm enough and the ground is moist. Choose your mix according to the conditions of your chosen area. Scotia seeds have a wide range of wildflower mixes, however this Wildflowers for Hedgerows Mix is perfect for those tucked away shady wild corners.
Being native means that more insect life is attracted to the plants and leaving it to grow a bit longer provides better conditions for insects to thrive, in turn providing a natural banquet for hedgehogs.
Dead wood is another perfect habitat for the insects that hedgehogs eat. Half bury logs to keep them moist, pile up branches, make a stumpery, create dead hedges, build a bug hotel in the shadier part of your garden….
And finally LEAVES….the hedgehog’s best friend! As well as being an amazing place for bugs to live and survive over winter, leaves are one of the best things you can leave for hedgehogs. They gather them up in their mouths and take to build or refurbish their nests. Medium sized leaves are preferred and once a big thick pile has been created, they roll round and round to weave the leaves together, to create a thick-walled hibernation nest to keep the elements out over the cold winter months. So please don’t collect up your leaves and put them in your brown bin, instead pile them up at the back of any borders or hedges you have or even behind sheds or other structures. They will become a tremendous benefit to your garden, letting creatures survive and finish their life cycles, provide food for hedgehogs and other animals then eventually enriching your soil. If you don’t have trees near you producing leaves then you could collect some up on a woodland walk or ask anyone who might be getting rid of theirs if you could have them. The same goes for logs and dead wood. I realise that not everyone has a mature garden so you could look out for people getting rid of logs after pruning trees. Your local tree surgeon might be willing to give you some logs that are surplus. I know David at Treetek often donates logs to our project.
If you have any spare logs or leaves yourself that you don’t need then you could advertise them on the Dunbar Hedgehog Group on Facebook where someone might fancy using them to improve their hedgehog habitat. Any photos of your wild areas would be great to see…just post them on that group too.
Log your wild patch with Hedgehog Street who are sharing seasonal tips to maximise your wild patches throughout the year.
Happy Autumn Wilding!!