Date published 8 July 2014
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Marshalls Register Member Conway Landscapes has helped build the world’s first Hedgehog Street Garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show featuring Marshalls Fairstone Sawn sandstone.
The Gold medal winning wildlife-friendly garden has been designed by Yorkshire-based garden designer Tracy Foster for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), in conjunction with the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and is being showcased at the prestigious RHS show which takes place from 8th-11th July.
The garden aims to show how easy it is for homeowners to create a safe hedgehog haven in their garden. Even though Hedgehogs have been voted the nation’s favourite mammal in a BBC Wildlife Magazine poll last year, hedgehog populations in the UK have dropped by over a third in the last ten years, with one of the contributing factors being how we maintain our gardens.
Cormac Conway, Owner of Conway Landscapes which has now built 12 gardens at Chelsea and Hampton said:
“I didn't know a lot about hedgehogs until now, but they are an endangered species and extremely popular with the public. It was an intense build as each process was one day of our schedule, but we’ve had a really nice experience here at Hampton court.”
In the design of Hedgehog Street, Tracy Foster presents a cross-section of three suburban plots, all with hedgehog-friendly features.
She said: “There’s an older couple, a younger couple and a family with a more relaxed approach to gardening. Combined, the three plots make a fantastic habitat for hedgehogs and of course there are plenty of holes in the boundaries for hedgehogs to travel between the different gardens.”
By getting together with neighbours, homeowners can take simple steps to protect hedgehogs. To ensure the animals can roam freely all it takes is a small hole, 13cm in size at ground level in shared boundaries, for the creatures to pass through. Hedgehogs are thought to travel one mile a night to forage for food, but by putting up boundaries to our neighbours their journey is broken which puts them in danger.
Hedgehog Street is a wildlife conservation campaign aimed at ensuring the hedgehog remains a common and familiar part of British life.
For more information on the campaign follow #hedgehogstreet or visit Hedgehog Street.
The Gold medal winning wildlife-friendly garden has been designed by Yorkshire-based garden designer Tracy Foster for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), in conjunction with the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and is being showcased at the prestigious RHS show which takes place from 8th-11th July.
The garden aims to show how easy it is for homeowners to create a safe hedgehog haven in their garden. Even though Hedgehogs have been voted the nation’s favourite mammal in a BBC Wildlife Magazine poll last year, hedgehog populations in the UK have dropped by over a third in the last ten years, with one of the contributing factors being how we maintain our gardens.
Cormac Conway, Owner of Conway Landscapes which has now built 12 gardens at Chelsea and Hampton said:
“I didn't know a lot about hedgehogs until now, but they are an endangered species and extremely popular with the public. It was an intense build as each process was one day of our schedule, but we’ve had a really nice experience here at Hampton court.”
In the design of Hedgehog Street, Tracy Foster presents a cross-section of three suburban plots, all with hedgehog-friendly features.
She said: “There’s an older couple, a younger couple and a family with a more relaxed approach to gardening. Combined, the three plots make a fantastic habitat for hedgehogs and of course there are plenty of holes in the boundaries for hedgehogs to travel between the different gardens.”
By getting together with neighbours, homeowners can take simple steps to protect hedgehogs. To ensure the animals can roam freely all it takes is a small hole, 13cm in size at ground level in shared boundaries, for the creatures to pass through. Hedgehogs are thought to travel one mile a night to forage for food, but by putting up boundaries to our neighbours their journey is broken which puts them in danger.
Hedgehog Street is a wildlife conservation campaign aimed at ensuring the hedgehog remains a common and familiar part of British life.
For more information on the campaign follow #hedgehogstreet or visit Hedgehog Street.