The first garden to be entirely designed around hedgehogs has opened at RHS Garden Harlow Carr in Yorkshire. Wildlife charity the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) joined forces with the British Hedgehog Preservation Society to create the Hedgehog Street Garden, designed by award- winning landscaper Tracy Foster.
RHS Harlow Carr
Among hedgehog-friendly features in the garden are nesting sites, “Hedgehog Highways” providing access to neighbouring gardens through fences, and safe water features. Log piles offer a haven for beetles – a hedgehog’s favourite snack.
A recent report revealed that hedgehog populations in the UK have fallen by at least half in rural areas, and up to a third in urban areas since 2002. There are probably fewer than a million hedgehogs left, and gardeners have a key part to play in giving them food, shelter and safety.
If you want to help the hogs in your garden, plant hedges or cut a hole in the bottom of a fence to let them through. Leave an area of your garden wild, and put a hedgehog home in a sheltered corner (you’ll find these, and other wildlife shelters, on sale in the garden centre). If you need more advice, feel free to pop into the garden centre here in Stocksfield; we’re always happy to help.
