One of the most common wild or semi-wild plants available for human consumption is the dandelion. Though you can eat the leaves of this cosmopolitan backyard weed year-round, they are tender and delicious when cut, blanched, and frozen or canned in spring. Once the yellow flowers develop, bitterness in the leaves increases, but two or three sessions of cooking and draining will take care of that. And the dandelion flower is the main ingredient in dandelion wine – a great topic for another day.

Purslane is a common succulent plant that is also edible.

Nettles are common in the wild, and contain more minerals than wheat grass. Nettles may be juiced or cooked, but wear gloves when handling the fresh plants to avoid the stinging sensation that results. The stinging factor disappears once the plants are cooked or juiced.

Lamb’s-quarter is a common nuisance plant (to farmers, anyway) that is similar to spinach. The seeds and leaves are high in protein, vitamin A, calcium, phosphorus and potassium. Any farmer will be more than happy to allow you to dig up all the lamb’s-quarter you find growing in the rows or end lands of cultivated fields.

I have lots of this Lambs quarter growing in my yard along freshly turned soil and along the perimeter of my lot. The deer love it! I often wondered if a person could watch what the white tail eats and eat it too. Hmm are hosta edible?
Purslane too is all over my yard. Go figure? Dandelion too. Golly, I should try this stuff! I really do have a dandelion wine recipe that I've not yet tried. How is the stuff?

-RidgeRunner Out

Common Plantain another yard weed very good eating, similar to spinach. The yellow flowers of the dandelion are good raw in a salad or fried in batter.
What ever you do know your plants well before you eat it F.G.

I just bought lambs quarter seeds from a health food provider on the internet a few months ago, my grandmother used to feed it to us all the time, it's good but it doesn't grow here anymore, danny's grow all over my yard, I'm really interested in making wine from these, it's another day can you post your recipie?

My Dogs pull up my Hostas in the spring and eat on them....so there might be something good in them.....

I dry the leaves and roots of dandelions and use as a tea. It's great for the flu to break a fever.
The roots can also be used as a coffee replacement but I haven't tried that yet.

A friend of mines dad use to make dandelion wine, holy sh!t that was powerful stuff man, tasted like cool-aid but kicked your ass like Jack, when I was 14 we got so sick after drinking 2 or 3 big bottles and stubblling around the woods bumping in to trees and throwing up allover the place, we never drank it again. I don't think it was one of those things like you drank to much Southern Comfort, and got so sick you never drank it again things, I think it had more to do with the Pizza we had for lunch combined with the deep yellow color of the dandelion wine that made me never want to drink it again, hope that wasn't graphic.