Winter Guest?

[Dizzydog]

We have at least one hedgehog visiting nightly and taking food from our hog feeding box. (They must visit very late, as we haven’t managed to spot them at all this year or last). We also have a sleeping box which wasn’t used this year, but I put a pile of fresh hay in there a few weeks ago, more in hope than expectation that someone would hibernate there. I’ve just had a stroll round the garden, and noticed that many of the long stems on a ground cover plant near the sleeping box have very recently been torn off. They are scattered over the surrounding ground and at the approach to, and just inside, the hog house, so I’m very excited to think that we may have a guest planning to overwinter with us. Fingers crossed!

[Nic]

Hi dizzydog

Fingers crossed for a hog deciding to hibernate there. Do you have lots of leaves in your garden? They prefer medium sized leaves – but loads of them, they layer the leaves a bit like tiles, so much closer together than just a pile of leaves and have a hog sized ‘chamber’ in the middle. Such clever animals!

[Dizzydog]

Hello, Nic. Yes – forgot to say that there are a few layers of leaves under the hay, but we only have a small garden, so natural materials are a bit scarce. However, in the spring I did make a log pile from a mature shrub that unfortunately had to be taken down. I don’t know whether any hogs used it – I did leave it hollow in the middle with a little entrance – but hopefully it came in handy for our solitary resident frog.
Several neighbours now look out for the hedgehogs, and have nesting boxes, etc., so it will be a privilege if one has chosen our garden to feel safe in this winter.

[Nic]

Hi Dizzydog

Log pile sounds great. If you’ve got some friends with bigger gardens, maybe they wouldn’t mind donating some leaves. A lot of people seem to end up with more than they want!

[Dizzydog]

Hi Nic. I do have a friend with a large garden and lots of trees. Why didn’t I think of that? I’ll certainly be asking her for a leaf donation in future. Could also collect some whilst out walking.

[Nic]

Hi Dizzzydog

That’s good that you have access to some leaves. Look out for medium sized ones, which are apparently favoured and shrub leaves are as good as tree leaves.

[Author]

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