Lily's Cottage

Very worrying, but sadly no surprise. Rescue centres are full of poorly and underweight juveniles. Please take these simple steps to make your garden hedgehog friendly :
Put hedgehog highways (5"/ 13cm square holes) in the bottom of fences, preferably every side of your garden
Leave some messy areas for them to forage in
NEVER use pesticides
Always have a shallow dish of fresh water (great for all wildlife)
and if you can, supply supplementary food - meat based cat food is best
purchase/make a hedgehog house and put 8n a quiet part of your garden where they won't be disturbed

Big changes ahead for hedgehog conservation! 🦔

The conservation status of the European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) has been updated from Least Concern to Near Threatened in the latest release of the IUCN Red List. Monitoring efforts indicate that their decline may exceed 30% over the past decade, putting the species at serious risk.

“Unfortunately, evidence points towrds a worrying and widespread downward trend (..) There is still a chance to halt the decline of the Western European hedgehog, and we must aim to prevent any further worsening of status,” explained Abi Gazzard, Programme Officer at IUCN SSC Small Mammal Specialist Group member (follow ).

Once abundant across Europe, the West European hedgehog now faces a rapidly shrinking population. Urban development, agricultural expansion and road infrastructure have fragmented the hedgehog’s habitat, while vehicle collisions, the use of pesticides, and poorly managed gardens continue to reduce their numbers.

“This decline will likely come as no surprise to the average person. When hedgehogs come up in conversation, it’s not long before someone says that they just don’t see them anymore,” said Hope Nothhelfer, Communications Officer at the Mammal Society.

We are calling on the public to contribute to hedgehog monitoring efforts by recording sightings through the Mammal Mapper app, and by joining forces with other nature champions through a local mammal groups. Collecting this data will help inform conservation strategies and focus protective measures in critical areas.

Empowering conservationists, students, citizen scientists and nature champions to play a key role in grassroots conservation now and in the future ensures a bright future for mammals.

Find us at Ferring's Scarecrow Market tomorrow in the village hall.

We've got Bat Boxes to get you in the Halloween spirit 🦇, Bug Activity Boxes to keep the kids entertained over half term and lots of gift boxes for the super organised 🎁🎄🎅🏼

The forecast is for sunshine (finally), so don your comfy shoes and take the trail round the village.

So your garden wildlife doesn't miss out, we are offering free delivery to Billingshurst this Saturday (I don't want to be out in that wind).

This includes our new offer of 3kg for £10 on our Favourites Bird Seed Mix.

Just pop us a PM or head to our website

We're off to Shipley Community Hub this morning where we'll be giving a short talk about sustainable gardening and composting.
Martin will have a demonstration model of our standard compost bins, so if you're thinking of making your own black gold, pop along for a cuppa and a chat.

Just a reminder that we need donations of empty jars like those in the photo 🙏🏻
We fill them with our peanut butter for birds and now the weather's turning colder we will be making lots of this high energy feed 🐦🥜

Jars need to be between:
2 3/4 and 3 inches (70 and 77mm) wide
3 1/2 and 4 inches (90 and 100mm) high

We will give a discount off any of our products for clean jars, label and glue removed, complete with their lids donated to us. We will happily take ones with labels still on, too, but you'll only get our gratitude for those 😊

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and didn't get too wet yesterday. Next weekend we will be back at the We can't wait to be back at this eclectic event, it's so relaxed and friendly it didn't feel like work.

If you saw us last year, we have some new products for you:
Inspired by our collaboration with we now make Mini Pollination Stations for domestic gardens
We've upgraded our hedgehog houses
We now make our own bird seed mix that's free of those cheap fillers that get left in (or flicked out of) your feeders.
We'll have a selection of gift boxes, including our new Bug Activity Boxes for children

Find us in the woodland and come chat all things wildlife. And, of course, we'll have Lily with us again.

We're in Arundel today with the monthly Farmer's Market. You'll find us in Jubilee Gardens, enjoying the sunshine by the river.

Can't believe it's taken us this long to finally bring our products to
Find us in Jubilee Gardens 9 til 4

Find us at Steyning Farmers Market tomorrow morning

We love Josef's stall and get many eco products for our home from him. Not only are Refills good for the planet, they're good for your purse too. Plus he also supplies the compostable wrap we use on our stuffed pinecone bird feeders.

Can you help me get 700 followers?

Plastic free refills have just celebrated 3 years of trading!
We've been so busy with markets and events that I didn't even notice!
(See attached me enjoying Friday lates in the Carfax)

Thanks for capturing me in the moment!

It seems like so long ago when we set up in little old Abertillery.
We're now permanently in Horsham (my hometown) you can find us every Thursday and Saturday at the Carfax local market in Horsham for all your refill needs.

Help spread the word. We are here to stay and we're determined to make a difference!

We've already saved an estimated 10 thousand bottles from being thrown away. Help us get to 15k by the end of the year!

We love helping you help your garden wildlife, but now we need your help. Our jars of peanut bird feed are proving so popular we, along with our friends and family, can't eat fast enough. So we need your donations of empty jars please.

We regularly use Rowse 340g honey jars, Sainsbury's sauce (cranberry, mint, seafood) jars, Tescos chutney and organic jam jars, but we'll happily take anything of a similar size.

Jars need to be:
70-77mm / 2 3/4 - 3" wide
90-100mm / 3 1/2 - 4" high
Complete with their lids

Plus, if they're clean and you've removed their labels and glue we'll give you 50p off a full jar of peanut feed.

We're at this morning. It's nice and busy this morning and the weather is being kind.
There's several new traders with us this month so pop along and support local small businesses.
If your after bird food, especially our peanut butter stuffed giant pinecones, best be quick as it looks like we're going to sell out

We'll be at again this month with our upcycled products for your garden wildlife.
Lots of stalls with lovely things for you, your home, your pets and, of course, soooo many tasty treats for your tummy.
And if that wasn't enough to tempt you, there will be another market raffle to win a selection of goodies from some of the traders.