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home for their offspring. Every summer a leaf cutter bee spots the hollow canes, and uses them as a nursery to lay its eggs. Each egg is cocooned in a layer of carefully cut leaf discs. I'll spot where these have come from as I garden, where neat discs

and secure it in place with clothes pegs.To ensure good fruit-set you need good pollination, and for this you need bees. Having spent many days outside enjoying this warm weather recently, I'm encouraged by just how many bees I've seen, including large

of apple trees to swell, flushed with pink, before the pure white flowers burst open. As my main reason for growing apple trees is for their fruit, I'm keen that the trees produce abundant blossom, and also that there will be plenty of bees to enjoy it

moments our gardens they don't last for long; like blooms that open for just one day; scent filling the air; the antics of a bee quenching its thirst on a nectar-rich flower.You just need to be there and treasure that moment. Sometimes others are around

.Types to sow now include crimson clover, fenugreek, field lupins - even broad beans. They germinate and grow quickly and reduce weed growth. Flowering varieties even attract bees and beneficial insects.Nothing could be simpler, and the green manures help break

displays on so many trees and shrubs, such as pieris. But with blossom on many fruit trees now at its peak, frost can kill flowers before bees have had a chance to pollinate them. When this happens the blossom will fall without developing any fruit

. bonariensis too, with bees and butterflies flitting from flower to flower all summer.I've spotted several local authorities using V. bonariensis in flower displays on roundabouts, so that's a sure endorsement of its reliability and performance

spread!Earlier today I watched as a dozen or more bees eagerly flitted here and there, visiting the clover flowers. Far from being a weedy embarrassment my lawn is actually a wildlife haven.Earlier in the day my daughter commented on the numerous

and loganberries have been alive with bees helping to pollinate an abundance of bloom. Desperately dry conditions in my area of the East Midlands have forced me to water regularly to support new canes development, as these new canes will carry the crop next year