[smartie]

Warm welcome to WAB. Like others I look forward to hearing about your wonderful garden. And I would agree entirely with what has been said about leaving well alone until you see what comes up both by way of plant and animal life in the main growing/breeding season next year.

And from my experience I'd say go very slowly and carefully with any clearing you do. When we took over our garden the previous owners (who called themselves "property developers") had hacked down anything - apart from a few trees - that they couldn't use the lawn mower on, and we have had to spend years encouraging wildlife back in.