Crop rotation is one of the oldest and most effective strategies for organic pest control and maintaining healthy soil in your garden. Specifically, it means the planned order of vegetables or fruits in garden beds; avoiding planting the same crop (and the same family of crops) in the same space for a two or three-year period; and knowing what family your edibles belong to. The rules of crop rotation apply to plants in the same family, like tomatoes and potatoes, as plant families are usually susceptible to the same pests and diseases (unless a particular variety has been bred for resistance). Many new gardeners become discouraged in the first few seasons when they make the mistake of planting tomatoes or lettuce or potatoes or corn in the same garden beds year after year. They can’t understand why those hornworms, caterpillars, tomato blight, and powdery mildew keep ravaging their veggies. Where the same vegetables or fruits (or families of) are grown in the same patch of soil …