Help something seems to be slowly killing everything

Hi Im new round here and to be frank landed here in desperation. We are not gardeners and in fact know very little but we have sort of kept our plot in reasonable shape and planted things we like. However I have a serious pest/disease problem spreading across the garden. I may be misunderstanding this but is seems to have started 2 summers ago in one of the Lime trees at the bottom of the garden. It had sort of white patches on the underside of lots of branches and just didnt grow as well are previous years. I noticed it but at over 40ft high didnt really think there was much I could do about it??

At the start of last summer there were signs of something eating(???) the leave on a previously very healthy Bay Tree / Bush that growns partially beneath the Lime tree. Now it seems to have spread all the way across the front of the garden (about 25ft) and has affected a number of bushes (I dont even know what they all are) but even now a luarel and holly bush. and a couplf of plants I put in last year have been eaten before they can even get established and seem to be dying. I need to do something but havent a clue what it is or where to even start to tackle it.

Of most concern to me is the Bay Tree which was grown from a cutting by my father and he grew that from a cutting out of my grand mothers garden going back probably 50 years ago so I'd be very sad to lose it. None of the plants seem to be actually on the brink of survival but they are all ceratianly not healthy looking and very thin on foliage as it gets attacked almost as quickly as it grows. I've had a freind who's a big gardener advise that I need to wipe over all the leaves with soap and water but thats a mamouth task and a dont know where or how you would even start with a full size tree?! Photos attached absolutely any pointers would be very gratefully recieved and if its work that needs to be done were willign to get stuck in but need pointing in the right direction. Thanks in advance!

 

Welcome Peter.

The damage to the leaves suggests caterpillars to me. It also looks as if there's a fungal disease too but I can't put my finger on which one.

 

Thanks, for taking the time to reply, Ive not seen any catapliers ....... are they really hard to spot like special forces? What I have seen is some tiny mites some black and VERY small and then in the photo of the back of a leaf (the one with my fingers in shot) theres some sort of small critter about level with my fingers half way across...... again if these are related I havent a clue!

 

Well I was thinking Caterpillar damage but last year so you probably see any now.
Possibly some fungal problems.

I'd be surprised if the problem on the lime trees would be the same one as on the bay tree.
Best wait and see how the new growth fairs, you could perhaps help by raking up any dead leaves,and aeven a light trim of the bay to tidy it up.
To be honest I think we are looking at a number of different problems, so no one size fits all.

 

Thanks Pete, I'll clear the ground around the bottom, its at the road end of our garden so historifcally Ive always just left whatever leaves fell in place and this is a second refence Ive hadabout old leaves (I read that I shoudl burn them but that wont go down well with anyone I dont think!) Is it safe to compost them and if so does that need to be a long process to get rid of whatever's i there? Trimming and leaving it is pretty mych what I did last year and this years is MUCH worse so I feel I need to intervene??? I'm not a fan of chemicals but do you think a general fungicide or pesticide spary is a good idea? and if so anything you might recommend?