NIGHTS have been so chilly this month that I’ve held off planting heat-lovers like tomatoes and peppers. But I started them from seed two months ago in the greenhouse and now they’re pawing at the door. They’re starting to flower. They’re too big for their pots.

So when Memorial Day rolled in, I wished my babies good luck and planted my salsa garden: three kinds of chilies, or hot peppers; two sweet-pepper varieties; two paste tomatoes, and one big juicy heirloom.

I’m growing about a dozen varieties of heirloom tomatoes this year, but my favorites for salsa are San Marzano, an Italian plum tomato that ripens to a brilliant red with clusters of five or six fruits on a vine, and Amish Paste, a large oblong tomato with a deep, sweet flavor. Both are meaty types that don’t turn to pulp when chopped, and are delicious cooked or raw. For contrasting color, I’m growing Yellow Brandywine, a juicy tomato with a rich flavor often lacking in yellow varieties.

Must-haves for chilies include jalapeño, a blunt three-inch pepper that can be harvested any time as it ripens from green to red; habanero, a wrinkled little fruit that can cause serious pain, so beware; and ancho-poblano, a heart-shaped flattened four-incher that is relatively cool for a hot chili. (When green, it is known as poblano; as it ripens to red, it is called ancho and can be dried for storage and used in smoky moles.)