Plants have been ripped out at the ‘edible garden’, situated behind St Ronan’s Primary School in Innerleithen, while the polytunnel has also been slashed.
The popular space has been the victim of vandal attacks “on and off” since 2019.
But the frequency of the incidents has reached unprecedented levels.
Volunteer Shirley Spence, who has run the garden for around eight years, found damaged plants on Monday (July 14).
(Image: Shirley Spence) “The previous week there were four incidents,” she said. “We usually have some damage but we’ve never had four in the space of a week.”
Ms Spence says she reported the incidents to the police.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said that enquiries were ongoing into vandalism at the garden.
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“It’s been happening for years,” said Shirley about the damage. “The polytunnel area has had the most damage. It’s been slashed, we’ve fixed it, it’s been slashed again. The doors have been ripped off.
“We used to have an irrigation system in the ceiling – that was all ripped out.
“The latest is they’ve used canes to slash holes that are about one-and-a-half feet long in the top of the polytunnel.”
(Image: Shirley Spence) Ms Spence said she managed to bag more than £10,000 of National Lottery funding to expand the garden.
The planned upgrades include introducing raised beds to help disabled people, putting in composting toilets, potentially creating a pond, installing another large shed and buying tools.
But Ms Spence said she was “very reluctant” to make the improvements.
“If we spend the money and it all gets wrecked then it’s a waste of money,” she said.
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The garden was set up with the aim of helping people of all ages to gain confidence in growing their own food.
The produce is distributed to everyone that comes to volunteer and to people who are unable to afford fruit and vegetables.
It is also linked in with the primary school and youngsters help out with growing the goodies.
(Image: Shirley Spence) But Ms Spence is worried there will be “nothing left” if the vandal attacks continue.
“They ripped out nearly three-quarters of a bed of carrots, they smashed up the peas, the broad beans, they ripped out onions, they’ve smashed half a bed of tomato plants, they’ve pulled out courgette plants, and they’ve wrecked half a bed of beetroot,” she said. “We’re trying to replace it, but you’ve got to grow the stuff to replace it.
“If they continue doing what they’re doing, there’s going to be nothing in the garden to harvest.”
She added: “It seems that over the past few years it’s been progressively getting worse.
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“It’s enjoyed by all of the community and the children at the school love coming, everyone gets a lot from it.
“It’s just frustrating and upsetting to go over and find that people have been in and all the hard work that people have done, bearing in mind they’re all volunteers, it’s all getting wrecked.
“Everybody’s angry and people are really upset because they’ve been to the garden and they can see how beneficial the garden is.
“A lot of people don’t understand why they’re wrecking something that’s of benefit to everybody.
“It’s just mindless vandalism.”