Hedgehog numbers have declined catastrophically over the last two decades. Their natural farmland habitat has been destroyed - hedges removed, field borders cut back and pesticides destroying their natural prey. They have taken refuge in gardens and, with a little care, we can aid their recovery.

Here are my tips for establishing a hedgehog friendly garden.

• 1.    Don’t be too tidy. Hedgehogs need bushes and shrubs for cover and piles of dead leaves etc. to make nests in which to breed, rest up during daylight and for hibernation.
• 2.    Try to avoid pesticides particularly slug pellets. Hedgehogs are the gardener’s friends – a natural pest-control.
• 3.    Provide water. Ponds are fine as long as they are not too deep and steeply sided. Hedgehogs can and do swim but, if they topple into a pond, they need to be able to scramble out - either at the shallow end or up a ramp of stones.
• 4.    Hedgehogs are not territorial, but each animal has a home range. They can travel – with that stop-start, wambling gait - for one or two kilometres per night so the run of one garden is not enough. Make sure that there is a way in and out – quite a small gap in the bottom of a fence will do. Hedgehogs can elongate themselves in a surprising manner.
• 5.    If you do provide snacks, make sure they are suitable. When I was young, bread and milk was the prescribed fare. THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. It gives them diarrhoea. They are insectivores and naturally eat beetles, worms, slugs, snails etc. However, they do seem to love peanuts!