Garden Salad: Things you can eat from your garden

What are common plants that are edible, palatable, and perhaps even nutritous that can easily be found in most gardens, specifically in North America, east coast?  Including common 'weeds'...

A) dandelions
bitter leaves, high in iron, leafy salad
flowers can be used for dandelion wine, which is also the title of a nice Ray Bradbury novel.
    

B) Ideas for which weeds to eat and how (Source 1)
-yellow dock/burdock

-lamb's quarter/goosefoot - related to quinoa, good nutrition.

-nettle leaves - leafy salad, good in soup.

-amaranth/pigsweed - food of incas, related to quinoa, can cook leaves, seeds

-plantain the weed, not banana - cook leaves.
 
-purslane - a succulent.  its leaves, stems, flowers can be eaten fresh or cooked. grows in all 50 states of the U.S.


C) Issues with eating weeds (Source 2)

-You could identify the plant wrong and eat something poisonous.
  

-Plants could have pollution in them, from air pollution, chemical runoffs, lawn chemical treatments, pesticides...  If you pick it from a sidewalk there could have been dog poop there.
 

-Usually they don't taste amazing - bitter...

-Some plants are edible in certain parts but not others, like edible leaves but poisonous roots.



Bibliography


1. "7 Edible Weeds" by Chaya.  Care2.com, 2012.  URL: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/7-edible-weeds.html?page=2.

2. "Edible Weeds" by Erin Huffstetler.  About.com, 2012.  URL: http://frugalliving.about.com/od/eatforfree/tp/Edible_Weeds.htm.