As we head into the final stretch of our alphabetical vegetable review, I can feel the excitement mounting. I refer here to the anticipation of those who wish I’d hurry up and get this over with. The folks in this group think of vegetables as groceries to be purchased, and not as the fruit of labor, lovingly nurtured through the gardening season.

On particularly hot and humid summer days when the horseflies are biting and the back of my neck is sunburned, I have moments when I think those people are smart. Then I remember what a grocery-store tomato tastes like, and I get back to work.

We’re going to finish up with three of the broadest vegetable categories — peppers, squash and tomatoes — plus two of the easiest-to-grow, early season veggies, radishes and turnips. You’ll note that I’ve bypassed onions and potatoes, which generally aren’t grown from seed or transplants and don’t require advance planning.

• Peppers. First, the bells, also called sweet peppers. For your basic green bell pepper, California Wonder, Bell Boy, New Ace and Big Bertha all grow well in this climate. If you venture into bell pepper exotica, Purple Beauty and Lilac Bell, as well as Giant Marconi (which can be eaten green or red), Jingle Bells and Vidi (both red), and Golden Bell and Sweet Banana (both yellow) will do well here, too. Other colorful varieties include Chocolate Beauty and White Perfection. All mature in 60 to 75 days.
• Hot peppers. These peppers, which became trendy about 10 years ago, can be overdone in the home garden. Let’s face it: How many habañero peppers can one family, or even an entire neighborhood, put to good use in one summer? I came to the brilliant conclusion that just a couple of hot pepper plants are more than enough after I planted a whole row of them one summer. Cayenne Longs dry well; Robustini is milder and pickles well; Hungarian Yellow Wax peppers grow well here; and Garden Salsa is good for — you guessed it — making salsa.

All peppers must be grown from transplants in this climate and should be set out in late April or early May after the danger of frost has passed. If you start your own seeds indoors, have them germinating in early March.

• Radishes. If ever there was a no-brainer vegetable, this is it. My dog Roscoe could grow radishes. You just sprinkle out the seeds, cover lightly with dirt and walk away. In less than a month you’ll have radishes. You can do this in early March, because radishes don’t care about weather. If you want to keep them coming, keep seeding at intervals of two weeks. Cherry Belle is the most popular basic radish. If you want variety, plant White Icicle, which looks like a short white carrot.

Daikon radishes take about two months to mature, but they also must be planted in cool weather. April Cross is a reliable variety.

• Tomatoes. Having homegrown, vine-ripened tomatoes is why most people plant gardens in the first place. Tomatoes come in two types: determinate, which set their fruit once, and indeterminate, which keep producing. Celebrity is the most common determinate tomato, and most sauce tomatoes are determinate as well. In addition to Celebrity and Roma or Viva Italia, I always plant an assortment of indeterminates: Better Boy, Early Girl, Brandywine and Big Beef. For the best selection of tomato seed bar none, see the Totally Tomatoes Web site at www.totallytomatoes.com. Totally Tomatoes has the complete line of Goliath tomatoes, as well as scads of exotics, cherries, heirlooms and tomatillos. Plant tomatoes when you set out your peppers. They detest frost and should be started indoors by early March, if you grow your own.
• Turnips. Turnip seed will germinate when the soil temperature hits 50 degrees, so plant it in March and April. The trick to turnips is seeding them in well-dug soil and keeping the soil moist for a long spell, as the seed can take three weeks to germinate. Purple Top White Globe is the most common and most reliable variety of basic turnip.