I used to have organic garden vegetable plots in my garden and had plenty of hogs visiting without the need to feed them.
I eventually found the work digging and weeding too much for my aging back and grassed over the vegetable plots.
Coincidentally? I started seeing less and less hedgehogs and their ‘presents’ with none at all spotted in 2015 and 2016.
In 2016 I started letting areas of my garden grow wild as an encouragement to wild-life (and far less mowing!).
Last year, I spotted a few ‘presents’ and early this year two hedgehogs making a lot of noise beneath the rosemary bush bought a surge of happiness and delight.
Having mourned the disappearance (my neighbours also reported they had not seen any for a while), I was determined to do all I could to help them, so set up feeding stations and eventually some hog-houses.
I’m convinced that allowing parts of the garden to grow wild, substantially increasing the insect life has been responsible not just for hedgies returning, but now the bats spend longer hunting over the garden, and I’ve had some great aerial displays from dragon-flies on a summer evening, hunting over the tall grasses and wild-flowers despite not having a pond.
Hedges, bushes (all with lots of dried grass stuffed beneath them), wild-flower beds, log-piles and ‘untidy’ areas mown just once a year and water dishes seemed to be appreciated. 🙂
