Excerpt:

It may be that, like the feckless Candide, we should quit tormenting ourselves about the terrible things over which we have no control — and just cultivate our gardens. Except we have very little control over what’s happening there either. Plants inexplicably wilt, rot and shrivel; they suffer the depredations visited upon them by voles, moles and deer. And then there’s global warming, giving booster shots to the poison ivy and generally wreaking havoc with droughts, downpours, blue northers and scalding heat waves.

For the complete article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/books/review/rodales-21st-century-herbal-and-more.html?emc=edit_tnt_20140530&nlid=67505195&tntemail0=y&_r=0