Dave's Garden meet my mystery garden

Hello all! After reading the posts of others who have unidentified plants growing in their gardens I have decided to post my pictures also. Long story short I am now the proud owner of a mystery garden. I really have no idea what is growing in this garden. I live in Northeast Tennessee and I am the most beginner of beginner gardeners just to let you know ahead of time.
Any advice at all would be appreciated - I'd especially to know if I can eat it, if should pull it, trim it, or just mow the whole thing down and start over!

We'll start with this little guy growing over in the corner all by himself
#1

#2 - I'm thinking this is a weed?

#3 - This one I identified - there are big green tomatoes under there!

#4 - unknown?

#5 - Okay, so I do know one more. This is corn, but there is only one of them?

#6 - weed?

# 7 - I think this is another weed

# 8 - this one has big leaves on really long furry kind of vines

# 9 - Whatever these things are they are enormous and are right in front of the tomatoes. The stalk part of one of these is almost as big as my wrist.

# 9 again - these are little flowers or buds that are on the really enormous plants

No 1 looks like brocolli or something from that familt to me and no 6 maybe a cucumber. I am not sure but there is someone else who will probably know for sure. good Luck. deanna

Hi there, this looks like it's going to be fun for the garden experts, (which I'm not) but I'm curious-did you just move in? How did you come to have a mystery garden?

#1 looks like what my radishes grew into, Has it flowered? I let mine go to flowers, because I love the little pods that come after.
#9 appears to be Poke (poke salet). It can be eaten when very young, with precautions, but at that size it's toxic in all parts, I think. It's very common.
The others are unknown in my garden as well, so I'll be watching.

p.s. I'd keep the tomato.....:)

This message was edited Jul 14, 2008 9:57 AM

Fantastic crop of weeds you've got going there. ;)

#7 looks like mimosa tree and you don't want it in a veggie garden, maybe way away from your house.
#8 morning glory?
#9 can't remember it's name but you don't want it either..........those buds will turn into purple berries and the birds will spread it everywhere.

#1 looks almost exactly like my brussels sprouts. (or what's left of them after the cabbage worms. :) ) Maybe broccoli.

I would venture a guess at #8 being a cucumber.

I'm a beginner too.

This message was edited Jul 14, 2008 10:31 AM

This message was edited Jul 14, 2008 10:33 AM

OK, more guesses:

#1 Looks just like my broccoli plants
#6 Looks like a volunteer tree--pull it quick before the roots get a mile long!
#7 Looks like a locust tree--also need to pull quick, as they get thorns, and are difficult to eradicate
#8 Looks like cucumber or some form of squash or zucchini (all in the same family)
#9 Agree with Poke Sallet--it is fairly poisonous at this stage, and if you have kids I'd get rid of it immediately, as the berries are very attractive & potentially deadly if eaten. You also don't want it to go to seed and spread throughout your garden. ;o)

The others (besides tomato & corn) look like mostly weeds, though nothing I could definitively identify.

HTH!
Angie

Here are my guesses:

Looks like you have a couple of trees or bushes there.
#1: broccoli
#2: sage. break a leaf and smell it.
#8: melon or squash.

Okay, so it was 8 o'clock before I got off work tonight and got to read everyone's replies. So anyway I was fighting nightfall and chopping away in the mystery garden - frantic to rid myself of these poisonous plants! I have no kids, but I do have a dog. I found no berries so hopefully that's a good sign.
Once I got started I actually ended up taking out everything except for the ones that we have a consensus on. So basically now the mystery garden is really a tomato, and possibly a broccoli and cucumber or squash garden! I have wooden stakes and twine to try and get the tomatoes off of the ground, but that will have to wait for daylight. I will post more pictures once I get it looking like a respectable garden.
So, as far as the Poke plants, is that something that would have been planted on purpose? Also should I get a shovel out tomorrow and try to dig up their roots? I chopped them down as far as I could go, but like I said some of the stalks were enormous. And what about all the pieces that I cut down? Is it safe to throw those on the compost heap (I'm very ambitious - I just started one of those too) or should I take them straight to the curb? Thanks so much for everyone’s help so far!

Hi, I knew I'd read about Poke somewhere else here on DG, and did a little searching. Check this out:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/537206/

and here is the Plant Files entry:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/576/

Still curious: how did you come to have a "mystery garden?" I have some plants whose labels have faded, so I no longer know what they are (until they bloom!), but wonder how you ended up with a whole garden full of mystery plants. I sense a good story. . .LOL

Angie

#6 grape.