Hi daffydill
Don’t worry about not seeing any young. Not all of us are lucky enough to have hoglets visiting every year. I haven’t seen any very young ones here for a couple of years, but in the past, one year there were 12! Although some of them late ones. When they are very small they are more likely to spend a bit of time in a smaller area getting to know their surroundings before gradually widening their ranges.
With regard to clearing up, you will almost certainly disturb some sort of wildlife or other – i.e. insects, amphibians, etc. If something has to be cleared then it’s more a question of trying to do it at a time and with the minimum disturbance. Realistically things do need to be cleared to some extent at some time. The picture of a complete jungle of a garden isn’t necessarily the best for diversity. Hogs for instance do seem to like to have an area of fairly short grass to forage on as well as thicker areas to nest in, etc. So it’s about trying to have areas of different type of habitat. So if there are some areas that you are able to leave that might be good.
Personally I think it’s a bit too early to be cutting wild flower areas, I normally leave mine until the Autumn. It’s still only Summer, even though at the moment it might not always seem like it! But I do tend to tweak it a bit – i.e. take the tops of the longer grasses and maybe cut back a plant which is going a bit mad and taking over. But the plants need to set seed.
My wild flower area isn’t enormous, so I try to collect as much as the seed as I can before cutting anything. Then because I know that frogs, slow worms, etc. can be hiding in the grass – even less visible than a hog – when the time comes, I tend to clear the area by hand. So pulling the grasses – I always think of it being like an animal grazing – and cutting any plants down with secateurs. But that way I can see what’s there and I have often come across frogs in the past. (Try to leave a bit of long vegetation so they have somewhere to go). But I can also leave certain plants not cut so low.
I know a lot of people would probably use a strimmer on such an area, but I have seen what terrible injuries they can cause to hedgehogs and then there are the frogs, etc. But if anyone is using a strimmer the area should be carefully checked beforehand to make sure there are no hogs hiding in the grass. Then the initial cut can be made to about a foot high, so that it’s easier to see any hogs, etc. before cutting lower.
There is the in between method of using shears, but even those could kill or injure wildlife.
But check carefully before clearing is the important thing.
There is some information here from BHPS: https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/gardening-with-hedgehogs/
