Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Garden spider?, 1 by benyoumans

benyoumans wrote:
This is a back view. The bodies are app 2 inches long not including the head, and about the width of my thumb. With the legs they are around 4 to 5 inches. These are very large spiders. This is approximate because I didnt put a tape on them. I have dozens of them throughout my yard. I have left them alone. I started seeing them last summer and this year there are many more. They dont seem to be aggresive in any way. I am familar with the yellow writing spider but these are much larger and no writing. The underside is much different in coloration.