insideKENT Magazine Issue 46 - January 2016 | Page 117

OUTDOORLIVING

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The new hedgehog friendly gravelboard from Jacksons will help our prickly friends to roam from garden to garden and forage more easily, keeping off the roads. Find full details on
these and all our 25 year Jakure guaranteed timber products by going to your dedicated page www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/ashfordlocal

Jacksons Fencing
GIVING HEDGEHOGS A HELPFUL HOLE...
I think you must have been completely out of
circulation recently, not to have heard about the
plight of the humble hedgehog. These appealing
little chaps, who are commonly considered the
gardener’s friend because they feed on some of
the pests in the garden, have suffered a severe
decline in numbers. The current population is
estimated to be around 25% down in the last
decade, which may mean there is only a million
or so left.

So what can we do to help? We can avoid leaving
netting around for them to get caught in; check
carefully before strimming that there aren’t any
animals that will get hurt when you let rip with
the machine; and check the bonfire hasn’t
become a hedgie hotel. If you have to use slug
pellets, please find a wildlife-friendly version that
isn’t going to harm any animals. If you are of a
kind nature you could try feeding them a little
cat food, and don’t forget the water.

This may be caused by a reduction in their natural
habitat, the countryside. Which means more of
them are resorting to living in towns, where
unfortunately a whole raft of new threats exists.
The most obvious is getting run over by vehicles
– possibly 50,000 come to grief on roads. We
all know that the hedgehog’s first defence
mechanism is to curl up, so they present a prickly
ball; not many predators will find an attractive
proposition. Sadly this doesn’t work in any way
to deter cars, they just squash them!

Hedgehogs used to be able to move much more
freely between gardens, finding a variety of
locations to feed and make a home. Nowadays
we are all a lot keener on fencing in our properties,
and sturdy gravelboards at the bottom of fence
panels probably have put an abrupt stop to many
an established hedgie run.

The list of bad stuff that can happen to hedgies
(as I like to call them) is lengthy: many drown in
garden ponds because we don’t think of putting
something in there to help any hapless creatures
climb out. They are also poisoned by careless
gardeners who still haven’t cottoned on to the
fact that slugs eat slug pellets, slugs are then
eaten by hedgehogs, then hedgehogs die a very
nasty death from poison!
The list continues with getting trapped in netting,
which can result in horrific injuries when they try
to escape, being burnt in bonfires that seem to
be a nice place to make home, until it is set on
fire, and apparently strimming accidents are fairly
common too.

Here at Jacksons we’ve tried to find a way to
help our spiky friends – we’ve created the
hedgehog-friendly gravelboard. It is the same as
a normal gravelboard, but it has a hole at one
end, large enough to allow them free passage,
with a reinforcing strip along the top of the board
to ensure it isn’t weakened by the hole.
It may seem a small and simple move on our
part to try to redress the balance. We know there
will probably only be a small percentage of our
customers that will opt for installing one of these
boards in their fence run, but it will give us, as
a company, the chance to talk about the
hedgehog decline to our customers and anyone
else who will listen. The sincere hope is that it
will help to make a difference.
One last word to the dissenters, w