Good show, old maid

The zinnias have put on grand show this summer, and the bees and hummingbirds and goldfinches have made merry amongst them to their hearts' content. I planted the Giant variety (being slip-shod in my record-keeping, I can't give more information on the kind of zinnia - something about Giant and California, if I remember correctly) and was a bit surprised at how giant a Giant zinnia is. It shaded my vegetables a bit - my peppers, in particular, got a bit lost. But, looking on the bright side (which the peppers couldn't do, because they were in the shade), the zinnias' height hid the weeds that always get the better of things no matter how good my intentions or how diligently I weed at the beginning of the gardening season.
Bob Flowerdew and Eliot Coleman would shake their heads in dismay and I strive every year to do better at weeding. Now I've learned to not turn the beds in fall or spring. "Now I've learned" meaning that I read that this spring after I'd turned my beds already, but both Bob and Eliot (Flowerdew and Coleman in case my leap to a first-name basis is confusing) told me (not personally but in their books which they may publish for other people besides me, but I don't know for sure) that I don't need to turn my beds. I do need to aerate, says Eliot. And maybe I'll try it.