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Yard advice needed (PIP)
Hi there. I don't post here much as I'm not really a gardener type but I'm at my wit's end. I am hoping you lovely ladies can help me given your gardening expertise.
We have a pretty decent yard for a rented town home. A picture of it below (taken before we moved in) shows about 1/2 of it. To the right of the picture is more bark ground covering and another big (oak?) tree. The path to the left continues along the side of our house. Currently we have a big gas grill where the circle is.
We don't really have a lawn or flowers to keep up and those bushes are on a drip system, but what we do have back there is a bunch of spiders. Our neighborhood has a big problem with spiders. It makes us not want to grill. I hear you aren't supposed to kill them because they eat other bugs, but it would be nice if they weren't so rampant that we don't want to hang out on our deck and grill. I think the problem is made worse by the fact that we never go out there, giving the spiders free run of the place. We also have ivy and weeds popping up amongst the bark.
Can something be done about this? A gardener to pull weeds and scare away the spiders, maybe? 
Any advice is helpful.
Women don't want to hear what men think,
women want to hear what they think, in a deeper voice
Re: Yard advice needed (PIP)
I would try doing some things to attract birds to your yard. Try hanging some bird feeders, bird houses, and plantings that are attractive to birds throughout the seasons. Not all birds eat spiders though - so you'll want to research which in your area do, and figure out what will attract them.
Fantastic idea! I didn't think of that
Women don't want to hear what men think,
women want to hear what they think, in a deeper voice
That's a good idea; however the spiders are there for a reason. They're eating bugs from somewhere. If there weren't enough insects to sustain huge numbers of spiders, you wouldn't have spiders.
And relax, most of them are harmless. I'd be outside grilling and enjoying the space! I love the mulch lawn. I'd just fix up some container gardens and hang planters on the fence so I could have some color and texture.