How to make an adorable hedgehog out of succulents

Hedgehogs are one of our best-loved mammals here in the UK, and most people would be delighted to find one snuffling around their flower beds. Since they are both nocturnal and in decline, it is sadly a rare treat to catch a glimpse of one in the wild. But there’s nothing to stop you making your own little prickly friend. Here is how to make an adorable succulent hedgehog out of succulents and a beer bottle!

All the items I used for my hedgehog other than the succulents were rubbish. In fact, the idea came to me while I was putting the bottle into the recycling. The chicken wire is left over from my Chicken wire, Moss and Succulent Toadstool and the piece of landscape fabric has already been used once in the garden.

I knew I wanted the bottle’s neck to stick out as a nose, so I used that to anchor both the fabric and the wire. I decided to place them in a cape like configuration with most of the wire and material behind the bottle ready to fashion into the body as I didn’t want to end up with lots of wire and fabric underneath my hedgehog. It is probably easiest to see what I mean but looking at the photo above.

To add the soil, I popped everything upside down into a pot to support it. As I added the dirt, I started shaping the wire into a rough body shape to hold everything in place.

I then removed my form from the flower pot and twisted the chicken wire into itself to secure everything underneath before giving it a soak in a bowl of water.

Initially, I was going to leave the bottle’s neck as glass so started planting my succulents. I also originally planned to use two matching succulents for eyes.

But I wasn’t that happy with the eye placement and how it looked so went back and wrapped another strip of landscaping fabric around his snout and currently have two bottle caps positioned as eyes. I also added a random stopper to end the end of the bottle to stop unsuspecting creatures crawling in and getting stuck.

Once the succulents establish hedgehog should have a beautiful prickly body. And as you can see he already looks quite at home hanging out in our garden.

If this has whetted your appetite for cute hedgehog crafts, check out our Teasel Hedgehogs – they’re super easy to make! And for other beautiful ways to display succulents in the garden why not try our Garden Art Made From Colourful Succulents or our pretty Succulent Christmas Tree.