Help the Hedgehog

...If you would like to encourage hedgehogs in your garden...

When hedgehogs hibernate (between October and April) they do not store food, but exist purely on their fat reserves. When they wake up in the spring they have lost about a quarter of their body weight.

During the summer months however, they feed on many ground dwelling plant pests making them a very useful addition to the garden. If you would like to encourage hedgehogs in your garden, why not put out a ‘hedgehog habitat’. This will provide the perfect place for safe hibernation through the cold winter months, and the grateful inhabitants will wake up refreshed and ready to help in your garden! We have a selection of boxes available at the Nursery.

Have a look at www.devonwildlifetrust.org for lots of ways to encourage the wildlife in your garden.

The Red Mason Bee is the most common in this area and particularly likes the range of flowers and trees found in domestic gardens, it is a more efficient pollinator than the honey bee and by attracting them to your garden not only should you notice improved fruit crops but they also visit a wide range of garden flowers. By providing a suitable nesting facility in a sunny, south facing, sheltered position you should attract nest seeking females of the Red Mason Bee, or if you are lucky the Blue Mason or Leaf Cutter bees which are also solitary species.

The bees are active from late March to the beginning of July, although they never live to see their offspring, the new adults will form in September and remain in their cocoon until the following spring when the cycle begins again. The females tend to live near to where they emerge and the boxes are designed to attract a number of nesting females, many of whose offspring will reuse their natal nests, so a permanent nesting population can be established in your garden.