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.