Under attack!

All is not well in my trellis bed! About two weeks ago I noticed my previously vigorously growing penstemon was starting to look all sad and droopy, with previously green and luscious leaves turning purple and curling over. After a few days hoping it would get better by itself I carefully pulled about the tips of each shoots to discover a blacked, winged, insect firmly ensconsed in each one surrounded by little blobs. I scraped out as many of these freeloaders as I could find and crossed my fingers.

Soon after the penstemon's next door neighbour, my phlox, began to shrivelling and curling over. Gently unfurling the leaves I again discovered little black winged beasties surrounded by either poo or eggs, on leaves that were papery dry to touch. Again I scraped out the little blighters, but a week on the poor thing looks no better. Could these be aphids? A quick google reveals that none of the pictures of black aphids look like the critters I scraped out, but further googling on small black winged insects has turned up nothing. What could be causing this? I'm investigating and will report back...

Elsewhere in the garden, things are looking promising. My garden on a roll is starting to fill out nicely, and I've planted out more bedding plants in the trellis bed. Hopefully by the end of summer it will be a wafting sea of colour. Starting and current pictures below!

Garden on a roll bed: At planting 7 weeks ago, and now!

Trellis bed - Planted up three weeks ago, with some additions last week!

What have I let myself in for?

It seemed such a good idea at the time. "Darling how about we look for a place with a garden?" says my husband. Envisaging a beautiful blooming urban idyll, barbecues with all my friends on hot summer days and romantic dining under the stars - the idea certainly caught my attention whilst sitting in my small central London flat, and now 8 months on here I am, and here it is. The garden. My garden!

Before now the nearest I've been to gardening was a small window box perched high over the streets of West London, but now I have my very own patch of mud and soil, and I have absolutely no idea where to start with it!  

The garden itself is basically ok-ish to my untrained eye, facing south-east and in a reasonable shape,  with a few dog-eared plants in already (left by the previous owner). What these plants are I have no idea, and along with them are lots of weeds, rapidly growing bushes and what I suspect is a very large Leylandii (I think that's what they're called) hedge. Where do I start? Cut the bushes? pull up the weeds? do something about the mangy plants? My mum took one look at this picture and said "go and buy a lawnmower". That's probably a good place to start!