A hedgehog can walk more than a mile in a single night, weaving through gardens, hedgerows and playing fields in search of food. That journey only works if the landscape is connected — and in much of modern Britain, it isn't. Fences, walls, decking and tidy gravel borders have turned once-porous neighbourhoods into a maze of dead ends.

The good news is that hedgehogs are adaptable, and the changes that help them are small, cheap and usually improve the garden for everything else too. You don't need a large plot or a wildflower meadow. A hole in a fence, a shallow dish of water and a corner left slightly scruffy can be the difference between a garden a hedgehog merely passes through and one it can actually live in.

Why gardens matter so much

Gardens cover roughly a quarter of the land in many British towns and cities. Added together, they form a patchwork of habitat larger than most nature reserves, and hedgehogs treat the whole lot as one continuous landscape. A single garden is rarely enough on its own; a hedgehog needs to range widely to find enough beetles, caterpillars, slugs and earthworms in a night.

This is why connectivity matters more than perfection. An ordinary, slightly untidy garden that links to its neighbours is far better for wildlife than a pristine one sealed behind a solid boundary. Think of your plot as one room in a much bigger house, and make sure the doors are open.

Open up a hedgehog highway

The single most useful thing you can do is create a gap. A hole roughly 13cm (about 5in) square at ground level is ample for a hedgehog but too small for most dogs, cats and foxes to squeeze through. If every garden on a street had one, the whole terrace would become a thoroughfare.

• Cut a small arch out of the bottom of a wooden fence panel, or saw a notch at the base of a gravel board.
• Lift a couple of bricks from the bottom course of a garden wall and leave the mortar out beneath.
• Check under gates: hedgehogs cannot dig through concrete, so a gap at one edge is essential.
• For chain-link or wire fencing, fold back and pin a section to create a permanent opening.
• If a boundary is shared, mention it to the neighbour. A polite note and a promise to keep the gap neat usually does the trick.
• Link the gaps to cover: a strip of long grass, a low hedge or a clump of ferns gives them somewhere safe to move along.

Shelter and nesting places

Hedgehogs need somewhere dry, dark and undisturbed to sleep during the day and to hibernate through the winter. You almost certainly have a suitable spot already, or can create one in an afternoon.

• Log piles — stacked, not cemented, with damp leaf litter in the base are ideal. Leave them in place year after year.
• Compost heaps are favourites. Always check with a fork before turning, and never fork the top without looking first.
• A purpose-built hedgehog house should have a short tunnel entrance and no floor, placed in a quiet, shaded corner against a wall or under a shrub.
• Decking and sheds often have gaps underneath. If you can, leave one entrance open rather than blocking every edge.
• Leaf litter and brash left under hedges make free, natural nests.

Timing matters here. Avoid disturbing potential nest sites between November and March, when hedgehogs hibernate, and again from May to September, when mothers are raising hoglets. A quick check before any digging, strimming or moving of piles is a habit worth building.

Water and food

Water is often overlooked but it is genuinely vital. Hedgehogs drink regularly, and a hot dry spell can be hard on them. A shallow saucer or a low dish with gently sloping sides is perfect. If you have a pond, make sure there is a ramp or a gently sloping edge so anything that falls in can climb out — a piece of paving stone or a sturdy plank set at a shallow angle works well.

If you want to offer food, keep it plain and meaty:

• Good choices: tinned meaty cat or dog food (chicken or turkey, in jelly rather than gravy), crushed cat biscuits, or a specialist hedgehog food.
• Never give: milk, bread, fish-based food or anything in rich gravy — these cause serious digestive problems.
• Mealworms are fine as an occasional treat but should not form the bulk of the diet, as they imbalance the calcium-and-phosphorus ratio and can weaken bones.
• Put food out at dusk and clean the dish each morning to avoid attracting rats.

Make the garden safer

Many everyday garden features are quietly dangerous, and a few small adjustments remove most of the risk.

• Check before you strim. Long grass is a favourite daytime resting spot, and strimmers cause terrible injuries. Walk the area and look first.
• Avoid slug pellets. They poison hedgehogs directly and also remove their natural prey. Encourage birds, frogs and ground beetles instead.
• Cover drains and steep-sided gullies with a grid, or place a piece of rough wood inside as an escape route.
• Netting should be kept at least 30cm above the ground, or pegged taut — hedgehogs get tangled easily.
• Bonfires: build them on the day you light them, and always check the base with a torch before striking a match.
• Ponds need an escape ramp, as above, and bins should have lids that stay on.

Garden a little wilder

The final piece is simply to leave more room for nature. A metre-wide strip of long grass along a boundary, mown paths through the rest, gives insects somewhere to live and hedgehogs somewhere to forage. Native hedging such as hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel or field maple offers cover and berries, while planting a small native tree — rowan, crab apple or silver birch — adds structure over time.

Resist the urge to tidy everything in autumn. Seed heads, fallen leaves and hollow stems are all shelter, and the insects they support are exactly what a hedgehog eats. A garden that is ten per cent scruffy is ten times more useful.

None of this requires money or expertise, just a willingness to leave a gap, put out a saucer and let a corner be a little less neat. Do that, and you may one evening hear the rustle in the border that tells you the highway is open again.