Help Requested: Vegetable Identification

[gardensgalore]

Hi all! Newbie gardener here. I started a garden plot ~2 months ago with spinach, bok choy, lettuce, carrots, yellow squash, butternut squash, and cucumber seeds along with pots containing alpine strawberry, lavender, dwarf sunflower, knee-high sweet pea, and basil + rosemary + oregano seeds. On the bright side, stuff is growing! On the less bright side, I'm unsure of what some of the plants are (spinach v bok choy v dandelion greens v other weeds, etc).

1) Could experienced gardeners here help me figure out what is growing in my garden? See pictures with captions for specific queries.

2) Most of the plants are actually multiple plants. I planted 3-6 seeds per hole for the spinach, bok choy, lettuce, and carrots. Do I need to thin/transplant the multiples?

3) If you see weeds, to the extent you can identify the type of weed and whether it is edible, that'd be helpful for my morning juicing!

Are these plants spinach or weeds?

The two rows on top should be bok choy. Do these plants look like bok choy or something else? Where are the thick bok choy stalks?

The two horizontal middle rows should be buttercrunch lettuce. Could someone please confirm this is the case?

Are all of these frilly greens carrots, or are some weeds?

I'm pretty sure the four plants in a rectangle are yellow squash - could someone please confirm?

Cucumbers! How much should I thin them? How much space should there be between cucumber plants?

Are the plants to the left of the sweet peas alpine strawberries...or weeds?

What plant is this: spinach, dandelion green..?

[gumbo2176]

By now you should realize the importance of labeling what is planted where.
1st pic looks very much like spinach
2nd pic could very well be bok choi but I've never grown it
3rd pic looks like butter crunch leaf lettuce
4th pic seems to be carrots and not weeds, but they are few and far between for a very small harvest
5th pic could very well be squash, but a lot of new seedlings do look like that when they first come up before their true leaves are established
Last pic is definitely cucumbers and they seem pretty dense in that area. Are they going to climb on anything or be allowed to spread across the ground? If allowed to climb, that would be better for saving space and keeping the fruit off the ground to avoid pests and possible rot. I have mine planted every 6 inches in a row under my trellis.

[applestar]

I was thinking the not-carrots to the upper right might be chamomile? Are you growing them?

Learning what is weed is a step in the right direction. It took me a long time to learn what they are — but In the beginning, simple way is to assume whatever you didn’t plant is a weed. But I applaud your forward thinking that you could juice them if edible.

I bought a book on local weed identification — Weeds Of the Northeast. It shows photos of what they look like when first emerging, and when mature.... Then I needed a separate book/resource for learning which of these are edible.

I don’t think those are strawberries — strawberries look exactly like tiny version of the older leaves — tiny multi-pointed star shaped seed leaves. Here, there is a weed — a member of potentila that mimic strawberries until they start growing like a vine rather than forming a rosette of leaves.

[gardensgalore]

Thanks @gumbo2176 and @applestar!

Do you/anyone else know what kind of plant the leaf in the last picture (#8) is? I pinched it off the largest "spinach" plant in the first picture. It doesn't seem to match the images of bloomsdale savoy spinach that I've seen online.

Cucumbers - thanks very much for your advice, @gumbo2176. I'm planning to grow them vertically. I'll thin the cucumber plants out to be 6 inches apart.

Non-carrots - darn, @applestar! There were frilly green plants growing in a different spot in the garden bed. I thought they were carrot plants whose seeds had blown over and taken root a couple feet away and transplanted them to the carrot area. Now that actual carrot plants are coming up, it's looking like I've got two different kinds of frilly green plants. I didn't plant chamomile and am not sure what the non-carrots are. I'll try to find a book on weeds/edible greens in Southern California.

Non-strawberries: darn again! I'll take some closer shots and see if anyone can identify what the heck's growing in that pot.

[jal_ut]

I am going to suggest that as you plant you make some labels and label your plantings so you know what is planted there. Ya, that may be good for next time you plant, but for this you already have growing, I will say, just give it some time, and water as needed and you will soon see what comes of it. Have fun!

[imafan26]

The bok choy and most of the other plants need to be thinned or transplanted
Bok choy, spinach, and lettuce can be transplanted 8-10 inches apart. The stems don't thicken until they are ready and they have room. Spacing should be enough for the mature stage of the plant. Offset spacing in a small space will yield a few more plants in the same space.

Carrots are difficult to transplant, you will usually have to thin to 2 inches apart.

Squash and cucumbers should be trellissed. If these are bush types each one would need at least a 36 inch circle.
I plant 4 cucumbers on a 7 foot CRW cage. One squash vine would try to take over my small yard.

[jal_ut]

Cucumber vines will grow to four feet long. Squash vines may grow to twenty feet long. Of course you can chop them off or move them to go around in a circle. My Dad used to plant 5 squash seeds in a hole then take a long step and repeat. The plants would come up and go out like the spokes on a wheel. I like to plant a row and put one seed every foot in the row. Any way, try something.