I relate to the mysterious pests that eat up your seedlings. I can never find the culprits, which likely feed at night. And also the observation that gardens are never finished. I am curious about your hedgehog and would love an entire post about them. They are sold as pets here and seem adorable.
I relate to the mysterious pests that eat up your seedlings. I can never find the culprits, which likely feed at night. And also the observation that gardens are never finished. I am curious about your hedgehog and would love an entire post about them. They are sold as pets here and seem adorable.
My knowledge about hedgehogs is limited. I've only seen them at night unless they are in distress.
At our previous house, anytime our dog Freya the ever-hopeful found our local hedgehog in the back garden, we knew because she ran in with blood streaming from her mouth. She always thought it would go differently next time. It never did. We'd go out to check on it. Chester would stand at a respectful distance to point out where it was. It was always fine.
That is, until it apparently drank antifreeze. It was out in the neighborhood in daytime when it died. We were very upset.
Hedgehogs are adorable. When afraid, they curl up in a tight ball with only their hard spines facing outward. The spines aren't like porcupine quills. They are more blunt, hard and don't fall out easily. Freya always just got a mouthful of spines. You can touch them gently without getting hurt, but anything harsher is just going to hurt you, as it did her.
Of our current dogs, Zola hasn't met a hedgehog yet. Bertie probably has.
They used to be common. They aren't any more. Most people I know consider it a special occasion if they see one and an honor to have one visit their gardens. I understand we can tempt it to start using the cat door (after I install one) with dried meal worms. If we want to leave food out for it, tinned cat food is recommended. But we have so many slugs in our garden, it won't need us to leave any food out. Our garden is one big buffet.
I relate to the mysterious pests that eat up your seedlings. I can never find the culprits, which likely feed at night. And also the observation that gardens are never finished. I am curious about your hedgehog and would love an entire post about them. They are sold as pets here and seem adorable.
My knowledge about hedgehogs is limited. I've only seen them at night unless they are in distress.
At our previous house, anytime our dog Freya the ever-hopeful found our local hedgehog in the back garden, we knew because she ran in with blood streaming from her mouth. She always thought it would go differently next time. It never did. We'd go out to check on it. Chester would stand at a respectful distance to point out where it was. It was always fine.
That is, until it apparently drank antifreeze. It was out in the neighborhood in daytime when it died. We were very upset.
Hedgehogs are adorable. When afraid, they curl up in a tight ball with only their hard spines facing outward. The spines aren't like porcupine quills. They are more blunt, hard and don't fall out easily. Freya always just got a mouthful of spines. You can touch them gently without getting hurt, but anything harsher is just going to hurt you, as it did her.
Of our current dogs, Zola hasn't met a hedgehog yet. Bertie probably has.
They used to be common. They aren't any more. Most people I know consider it a special occasion if they see one and an honor to have one visit their gardens. I understand we can tempt it to start using the cat door (after I install one) with dried meal worms. If we want to leave food out for it, tinned cat food is recommended. But we have so many slugs in our garden, it won't need us to leave any food out. Our garden is one big buffet.