citronella plant
However, now that I'm in Year 2 of my home garden experiment, I know there's something worse than spider webs--aphids crawling on your vegetables, sucking the nutrients out of the plants and destroying the crop that you so carefully try to maintain. Now I welcome the sight of spider webs, because I know those spiders are eating the aphids and I don't have to send M. outside to crush those nasty critters with his bare hands. We don't use chemical pesticides, and we've lost some plants to various little parasites that reproduce earlier and quicker than their natural predators. I'm happy to see spiders, wasps, and anything else that wants to eat the bug and leave the fruit.
In keeping with our attempts to have a "greener" lifestyle, we also bought citronella plants, which are supposed to repel mosquitos. We'll position them around the deck, and I hope they work. I've never used citronella candles because I don't like the synthetic smell, and I don't use mosquito spray on myself near the veggies (my arms & legs suffer because of it). The citronella plants smell lemony, like the candles, but not as strong or artificial.
So now that I know the good bugs are out there eating the bad bugs, I just have to cross my fingers for a good growing season!
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