Over Labor Day Weekend,  I was home for a visit and I found the biggest spider I have ever seen hanging out on the cucumber plants. I pointed it out to my mom and she said that the spider had been there the entire summer.  The spider had built a large web straddling the cucumbers and Korean squash, a perfect spot for a hungry spider.  Upon further investigation I learned that this spider was a female Black and Yellow Argiope, also known as a Garden Spider.  In the waning summer, she ventured deep into the cucumber vines to lay her eggs.  When I found her she was fussing over her egg sac, covering hundreds of them with a papery coat.  Once satisfied, she returned to her web and resumed her spidery ways.  
She will die in the first frost of winter, but in this garden her babes will be safe.  With luck they will survive the winter and perhaps 10-20 spiderlings will survive to adulthood.  I hope one lucky spider will stick around next year.