On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 08:46:04 +0000, kay
wrote:


I've been helping my father clear out my mother's gardening books, and
in one was a newspaper clipping by Derek Senior:

"A fortnight ago, I referred to the amateur gardener's much-felt need
for a herbicide ... which would kill the toughest deep-rooting when in
full growth; yet which, unlike such root-acting weedkillers as simazine,
would be inactivated on contact with the soil. ... Such a herbicide, I
wrote, did now exist, but you would not find it on the shelves of any
garden centre. Today, however, I bring the glad tidings that it will be
generally available from April 1st..."

This was the launch of Murphy's Tumbleweed, glyphosate for the amateur,
at a time when the newly-available Round-up was only available to
commercial growers.

Hard now to think back to a time where the only choices for really tough
weeds tended to leave the area sterile for several months.

I have a little bottle of Tumbleweed Gel in the shed. Red gloopy
stuff. I wonder is it still legal to use and would it still work. Kept
it as a sort of momento of days past.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.