I do like the idea of growing something that we can use/eat as well. As you may guess from my next question, I'm not yet too green fingered......will all fruit trees and plants produce pollen and necture?
To be honest I'm not sure. Also not all of them will be liked by the bees in the same way.
All the
Prunus are fairly liked, in different amounts. That is peaches, almonds, cherries, plums and so on. That includes blackthorn (
Prunus spinosa) which you might want to use for sloe gin, sloe jelly and jam, and so on.
If you're planning on a hedgerow you can plant a mix of blackthorn, hawthorn, hazel, blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, and so on. A good mix of flowers for the bees and fruit for you.
Apples are also quite good, including crabapples (excellent for wine, jams and so on).
Soft fruit is generally also good for bees.
Pears do produce nectar, but bees don't seem to like them as other plants, so it's up to you.
As for vegetables, many do produce flowers that bees visit. Some, though, will spoil once they bloom, like lettuce or onions. If you find yourself with lettuce bolting, for example, it's already gone, so you might as well leave it for the bees instead of removing it as you'd normally do, and who knows... it might even self-seed.
But, and remember this, you're giving your bees a bit of a bonus on your land this way, but it won't make a huge difference. Think of yourself first when planting stuff to grow, and what you can look after, most often that'll benefit the bees too, and if it doesn't they have a few square miles to roam for forage.
