How can i identify weeds/volunteer plants in my garden?

I bought 1–2-3 Garden from home depot. It is a good book that helped me identify weeds in my yard.

How about the American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants with lots of pictures. You can get it for under $50 from Amazon or Overstock.com.

There are no such things as weeds, just unwanted plants.

I call them volunteers.

i have a beautiful sturdy cherry blossom tree in my front yard. it was there when i moved into the house in september, which means for the climate i’m in, it has already blossomed months ago. i did not realize until the next spring that a “sinister” weed at the foot of the tree was not ground cover at all, but a weed that takes on the “likenesses” of the tree. weeds can “mutate” and “mimic” the leaves, branches and roots of the true plant. if it looks not it’s not supposed to be there, it’s a weed. execute it before it gets comfy.