Top plants for hedgehogs and wildlife

What plants are best for hedgehogs? Read my guide to plants, hedging and trees to help hedgehogs thrive in your wildlife garden.

Contrary to popular belief, hedgehogs don’t mainly eat slugs. Slugs aren’t great for hedgehog because they are the intermediate host to parasites that hedgehogs can pick up. They eat them when there aren’t any better options. The best natural foods for hedgehogs (which aren’t host to parasites) are beetles and caterpillars.

Growing plants to attract insects is therefore one of the best things you can do to help hedgehogs. Plus, you’ll help other wildlife too!

As well as providing food and shelter for insects, plants also provide shelter for hedgehogs to forage and nest underneath. The more ground cover the better! Hedgehogs will often nest under large leafy plants including grasses. Don’t be too tidy – when plants die back in the Winter, keep the remains on the ground to provide hidey holes for insects. Don’t forget fences and walls – cover them with climbing plants and ivy.

Wildlife gardens should provide food all year round so your garden planting plan should include a range of plants that provide flowers, foliage and berries throughout the seasons.

A mix of plants (both native and others) are good but here are a few plant ideas to get you started:

I love Forget me nots and Spring bulbs – which also provide nectar for early emerging bees and other insects. Geraniums, Scabious and Wallflowers offer ground cover in Summer and then late flowering plants like Sedums, Hebes, grasses, Asters, Sage and Japanese Anenomes provide flowers and cover from Autumn into Winter.

Geraniums provide fantastic ground cover for hedgehogs – great for Summer courtship! If you buy larger pots of perennials you can divide them before planting. They will quickly establish. I do this with all perennials that flourish in my garden – I simply divide them in Spring/Autumn to create more. It’s cheap and you know they will thrive.

Wildflowers

Wildflowers are great for providing flowers and ground cover but remember that they thrive on poor quality, low nutrient soils. Here are some of my favourites:

• Field Scabious
• Ox-eye Daisy
• Meadow Cranesbill
• Red Campion
• Common Knapweed
• Wild White and Pink Clover

TIP: Many garden centres now offer native wildflowers as plug plants or you can grow them from seed.

Hedges for hedgehogs

Hedges provide a great habitat for a wealth of wildlife including nesting sites for hedgehogs and berries for birds. They also provide free access for hedgehogs between gardens, unlike walls and fences. Native species are best and ones with medium sized deciduous leaves are great for hedgehogs collecting leaves for their nests. Below are some of my favourite choices for a wildlife garden with beech, hazel and oak being particularly good for hedgehogs to add to their nests.

• Beech
• Field maple
• Hawthorn
• Geulder Rose
• Berberis (not native but its flowers are great for insects and its berries for birds)
• Hazel
• Oak

Shrubs

• Alder Buckthorn
• Goat Willow
• Dogwood
• Buddleia
• Pyracantha

Lawns

Don’t use any pesticides or herbicides on your lawn. I have learned to love the daisies, dandelions and clover that grow amongst the grass. It’s much better for all wildlife, including the insects.

Good luck with your planting and please share your pictures!

Please read my blog for more tips for hedgehog friendly gardening and what to feed hedgehogs in your garden.

I am a wild hedgehog expert and wildlife gardener now busy creating a wildlife haven in the Yorkshire Wolds. All the photos are from my wildlife gardens.

If you’d like to learn more about helping hedgehogs and creating a wildlife garden, I run a range of online and in-person courses and events.

I also make silver jewellery inspired by nature and wildlife.