Why a suburban garden is a lifeline

A hedgehog can walk up to two kilometres in a single night, following hedgerows, garden edges and footpaths in search of beetles, earthworms and shelter. In the wider countryside those routes are becoming harder to find, but in towns and suburbs our gardens form a patchwork of green space that can work just as well — provided a hedgehog can actually get in. A row of back gardens joined together makes a superb corridor. A row of sealed fences does not.

The encouraging part is how little it takes. A gap in a fence, one scruffy corner left to go its own way and a saucer of water on the patio will between them turn an ordinary garden into a genuine refuge.

Cut a hedgehog highway through your fences

The single most useful thing you can do is create a gap. Thirteen centimetres square — roughly the size of a CD case — is wide enough for a hedgehog but too narrow for most cats, so it won't turn your garden into a feline thoroughfare. A few options:

• Cut a notch out of the bottom corner of a fence panel, or ask the owner of the other side to do the same from theirs.
• Lift a gravel board slightly, or remove a brick from the base of a garden wall.
• Check under gates, sheds and decking for a route through, and make sure any gap doesn't lead straight out onto a busy road.

These routes work best when several gardens join in, so mention it over the fence — most neighbours are delighted to help once they know why. Once your gap is in place, keep it clear. It is astonishing how quickly a plant pot, a bag of compost or a coiled hosepipe finds its way into the one opening you made on purpose.

Leave a scruffy corner or two

Hedgehogs need somewhere to sleep by day and to hibernate through the winter, and tidy gardens offer very little. Aim for a continuous run of low cover around the edges, because hedgehogs dislike crossing open ground.

• Leaf piles. A heap of autumn leaves tucked behind a shed or under a hedge is close to perfect, and will quietly rot down into a nursery for beetles and worms.
• Log and brash piles. Stacked prunings and short lengths of wood attract the insects a hedgehog eats.
• A compost heap, left undisturbed at one edge.
• Native planting. Hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, holly, bramble and long grass support by far the greatest number of insects.
• A hedgehog house, sited in a quiet, dry spot with the entrance facing away from the prevailing wind.

Resist the urge to tidy these corners in autumn or early spring. That is exactly when they are in use.

Water, food and the slug pellet problem

Put out shallow water all year round. A plant saucer sunk level with the soil, or weighted with a few pebbles, gives a hedgehog a safe drink; steep-sided containers are a drowning risk. Top it up in hot spells and check it hasn't frozen in winter.

Supplementary food helps, particularly in dry spells when worms are deep underground. Meaty cat or dog food, or a purpose-made hedgehog food, is ideal. Never put out milk or bread — hedgehogs are lactose intolerant and milk causes severe diarrhoea, while bread fills them up without nourishing them. Use a shallow dish, put it out at dusk and wash it regularly.

Please don't use slug pellets. Hedgehogs eat poisoned slugs and die as a result; metaldehyde pellets are no longer approved for outdoor garden use in Great Britain, and even so-called alternative products can harm the very wildlife you are trying to encourage. Encourage birds, frogs and beetles to deal with slugs instead, and plant a little more than you need so there is enough for everyone.

Check before you strim, mow or light a fire

A hedgehog's instinct when disturbed is to curl up rather than run, which is why so many are injured each year by garden machinery. Before you start, walk the area and look properly.

• Strimmers and mowers. Long grass, nettle patches and the base of hedges are favourite resting spots. Cut from the middle outwards, and never strim a pile of leaves or cuttings without checking underneath first.
• Bonfires. Build the pile on the day you intend to light it, or shift it a metre sideways before striking a match.
• Netting. Football nets, pea netting and fruit cage mesh tangle legs and spines. Lift netting off the ground at the end of the season.
• Ponds and drains. A gently sloping edge or a rough plank ramp gives a hedgehog a way out of water, and a piece of rough timber in a drain does the same job.

Helping hedgehogs through the year

Hedgehogs usually hibernate from around November to March, so leave any nest you find completely alone until spring. A late-born youngster weighing under about 600g in late autumn may need help to survive the winter — contact a local wildlife rescue for advice rather than trying to manage it yourself.

From spring onwards, food and water are the most valuable things you can offer, and in autumn a little extra food helps hedgehogs build up reserves. Look out for the signs that you have a resident: dark, shiny droppings full of beetle wing cases, snuffling noises after dark, and a tell-tale flattened path along the base of the fence.

Do record what you see with a local wildlife recording scheme — those sightings genuinely shape conservation work. And take a moment to enjoy it. A garden with a hedgehog in it is a garden that is working: alive, untidy at the edges, and all the better for it.