SpringWatch Comment tempts a new shed for building a Hedgehog House in!!..

"WELL, YOU DON'T GET A GARDEN LIKE THIS BY HAVING A TIDY SHED MARTIN!!"

My now famous quote on BBC Springwatch has brought me a lot of stick since it was aired in front of a few million viewers!! Even this week someone recognised me and quoted my now famous statement!! LOL

All this talk of my untidy shed has got me thinking and I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I need a new shed to store my 'junk' in but would also like it to double as a 'hide' for watching and photographing the birds and wildlife that visit the garden.

The dilemma that I now find myself in is, do I get some reclaimed / recycled materials and build a 'shed' as I normally would or is this a step too far? As I'm wanting to actually spend time in the shed as well as using it for storage maybe buying a brand new 'fit for purpose' shed like the ones featured here... http://www.shedsandthings.co.uk/  would be a safer option? I have had a flick through the sheds on this site and there are quite a few sizes and designs to choose from. I will also have to decide where the windows need to be how many windows I want, if photographing birds then I will want plenty of light etc, Oh decisions decisions!...

The old shed was inherited with the house and even before we relocated it the roof was loose and it was home to a family of mice... 

 With the roof coming off during it's move and despite the lick of paint the old shed has just about had it's day....

Here's the new workshop when we first installed it and I'm thinking my new shed/hide which will sit beside it should look more like this with double windows to let in more light and offer good views of the bird feeders... 

So that's my current dilemma and of course yet another plan to take forward to next Spring when I hope the weather will be more suitable for this kind of job.

Whilst it's great to think about a new home for my junk and somewhere warm and comfortable for me to sit and photograph the birds, we must continue to remember the difficulties that our wildlife has over winter and what we can ALL do to help it out.

Last week I wrote about what you can do to ensure that your garden ponds overwinter successfully and so that all the wildlife within the pond stay safe through the winter months and potential freeze. Well this week I intend to show you how to make a simple hedgehog house that will give a needy hedgehog a warm and cosy home for the winter. As usual I intend to do this using pictures with and explanation of the construction above and so that you can follow along and build one yourself...

Firstly you will need to find some wood and cut it to the following sizes that I have shown on my plan here...

Here are my plans for building a hedgehog house of your own. The sizes are a guide but offer a good sized house for a hog....

When choosing your wood it's fine to use scrap pieces to make up the bigger pieces like the roof. The only consideration when using separate pieces is to ensure each piece is secured together or screwed down to the sides (although don't do this until you have sited the box!). The house in the picture below uses three pieces of timber for it's roof, as the house will be buried this will cause no problem. I prefer to use wood that is 3/4" - 1" thick. 

Once you've completed building it a suitable site needs to be found to place the house. I chose an area right in front of a hedge and next to tree roots. The reason for this is that we have a dog and the neighbours have a cat that are both interested in hedgehogs! By having the entrance in the hedge between the gardens prevents these and other predators from getting into the box. By siting it here among the entanglement of roots and trunks of the shrubs also negated the requirement for a tunnel in this instance. However if you don't have this natural defense at your chosen site I fully recommend using a tunnel to prevent cats from attacking the entrance. 

Once the site is chosen a hole is dug big enough for the house to be located below ground level. Once excavated place the house into the hole and put in some bedding such as old woodshavings and leaves. This is the reason why the roof isn't screwed into place until this is complete...

  

Screw the roof into place and ensure that you have the ventilation pipe in place so that air can circulate inside the house. In this particular example I drilled the hole and fitted the vent pipe after the house was sited as I wanted it to vent into the hedge. I was able to achieve this by fixing it to the side of the house and snaking it underground and up above ground level within the protection of the hedge. Doing this hides the pipe but more importantly in this instance I wanted to plant plants in the soil above the box so prevented the risk blocking the pipe with compost or mud.....

 with the roof firmly in place the house is buried, I also buried some rocks and logs to one side of the box where I felt is was vulnerable to stop potential predators from trying to dig it up...

Below the box is completely buried and with the vent pipe running from the side into the hedge you wouldn't know that it was there. You can just about make out where the entrance is under the branch that is providing valuable protection to the doorway...

And once completely buried I did a bit of landscaping and just need to add a few plants to complete the job and provide a secure and safe home for our hedgehogs out of the way under the hedge.... 

Well that's about as much as I can show you as far as this goes at the moment although I do want to report that my neighbour told me only today that she had found a hedgehog in their garden. The best bit was that it ran under the hedge when disturbed exactly where our Hedgehog house is so I'm sure that our 'hog-house' is now inhabited!!

If you know that you have hedgehogs or you just want to put a house in the garden 'just in case' then you really must get on with this job straightaway, you never know you could also have hedgehogs in your garden very soon!!!...

That's about it for now folks but I will be writing again very soon although haven't yet decided what my next post will be about. Don't panic as I still have lots to catch up on from the summer and that's on top of current jobs and plans for next Spring!!

As always thank you so much for reading and following my mad ramblings and I'll see you all again very soon.

Best

Higgy