I would use the hold function to put all the plots on the same axis. The other function you want is legend:
x = linspace(-5, 5);
y1=x.^2;
y2=-5*x+2 ;
y3=4*ones(size(x));
figure(1)
plot(x, y1)
hold on
plot(x, y2)
plot(x, y3)
hold off
grid
legend('y_1', 'y_2', 'y_3', 'Location', 'SW')
