Preparing area for herbs/plants/wildflowers

Long story short: discovered that a section of my yard covered large bushes was actually my neighbor’s bushes overgrown onto my property. I’m tearing it up and preparing to put something of my own there. Area is about 8’x30’ of space that faces north.

I’m almost done removing most of the old plants and weeds that took over the area. What would be the next steps in developing out the area? The plants I mentioned are skinny trees about the thickness of a quarter that do not look good at all.

I would probably put a two raised garden beds that drain back into the soil below, with wild flowers along the outer edge of the area.