A web sight guards the plot. Meet the house spider, my all-natural pest control. Week 13 in the vegetable garden

She's my pest control. Always on the job. I take pains not to disturb her web.

A spider guards the entrance to my squash The tomato plants have formed a dense mat. I plan for next year. This is Week 13 in my raised-bed, square-foot vegetable garden.

I found a spider web atop my squash plant one morning. I broke through it to harvest a squash. When I checked back later in the day, the spider had repaired her web. Since then, I have left it alone. I found another way in to the bottom of the plant to harvest my squash.

The spider needs a name, but all I can think of is Spidey. Of course, that won't do. She deserves much, much better. She's my all-natural pest control. This morning I found two insects stuck in her web; she was attending to one. 

How do I know she's not killing off beneficial pollinators. Sadly, I don't. Maybe the zinnias and the cosmos in the garden are attracting insects and I'm complicit in luring them to their doom. I try to push such questions out of my mind.

A flower remains on the blossom end of this yellow squash. Later that day I sauteed the squash in olive oil with orange pepper.

Elsewhere in the garden, the tomatoes are ripening at a steady pace. We harvest enough red ones to get us through the day. But there are so many green fruits on the vine, I worry about what we'll do if all of them ripen at once.

I never did buy cages for all 14 of the plants. So the cherry tomatoes are sprawled on the ground. The vines are too laden with tomatoes and so heavy that if I tried to lift and stake them now, the stalks would break. I am leaving them as is, but making a note for next year to cage every tomato plant I purchase.

The pole beans are up about 6 inches are are heading for the first row of the trellis. I guide them as best I can. It looks like every seed germinated, so I should have a good crop by the end of September.

Cosmos are a cheery addition to the vegetable garden.