[Donnay]

I suffer with a bad back and was considering buying one. I have raised beds on my allotment and was unsure if the spade would be appropriate,. Those who have one do you think it would be ok to use with raised beds or not?

[Swing Swang]

These spades are really, really good at what they do. I used a friends a few years ago just for the fun of it (yes, really!). He's now 80 and I think that he's on his third.

I don't own one, but that's because I have irregularly shaped beds. If I had a conventional, large, rectangular beds I'd buy one tomorrow.

Not sure about raised beds - it would depend on what the edges are made from. My guess is that the first and last rows would still have to be dug conventionally.

[Growster...]

"Not sure about raised beds - it would depend on what the edges are made from. My guess is that the first and last rows would still have to be dug conventionally."

The back pedal does need to have a free arc Donnay, and as Swings says here, you may have to dig a trench and keep the pedal inside, otherwise it could clobber the timber edging (if that's what you have).

We have individual beds, but not raised, and I dug each of them with our Terrex (Backsaver), although near the end of each bed, the pedal was going down onto the grass paths, (which would be the position where you presumably have a wooden board).

I reckon you can develop a technique for digging in a raised bed, and if you look at the principles of use, you could plan the way you attack each bed, and get a result. You may have to walk on the bed though, which is something you may want to avoid.

To a certain extent, you can use the spade slightly sideways, but it's not the easiest option if you have a lot of digging to do, and if your back is a bit suspect, you're probably not going to do yourself any favours!