The ‘edible garden’ in Innerleithen provides a space for adults and children in the town to learn about growing food, as well as take away what they have helped to produce.
It also has strong links with St Ronan’s Primary, with the school using it as an outside classroom to help with parts of the curriculum.
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But the community hub, which has been repeatedly targeted by vandals over the years, suffered major damage in January.
Volunteer Shirley Spence, who described it as the worst vandalism the garden had experienced, said: “Everybody’s just devastated.
“They’ve completely trashed the whole garden. The polytunnel was ripped all over the place, fences broken, pots and containers all smashed.
The ‘edible garden’ in Innerleithen has suffered major damage (Image: Shirley Spence)
“We had two grape vines inside the polytunnel, they’ve completely been smashed. They’ve damaged stuff all over the place.
“It’s just devastating because it’s just constant now that people are going in and trashing the garden.”
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The volunteers have had to take down the polytunnel due to the damage, which has a knock-on effect on the garden club.
Ms Spence added: “The impact it’s had is at the moment we can’t do anything. With no polytunnel we can’t start the seedlings off because there’s nowhere to put them.
“The garden club will have to start up from scratch again once we get all the damage sorted.”
The ‘edible garden’ in Innerleithen has suffered major damage (Image: Shirley Spence)
Last year, Ms Spence said she had managed to secure around £10,500 of National Lottery funding to expand the garden.
But cash from that pot has now had to be used on repairs and replacements.
“We’re just a bit unsure of continuing to spend the money if the stuff is going to get trashed,” said Ms Spence.
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“At the moment it’s closed for the garden club until we get stuff sorted out. The volunteers are just trying to clear away what damage has been done and try to make a plan of what to do next.
The ‘edible garden’ in Innerleithen has suffered major damage (Image: Shirley Spence)
“We don’t want to stop the garden club and we don’t want to close the garden permanently. We’ll just fix stuff and start up the clubs again and try to continue.
“It’s just frustrating that every time you go over to check it, there’s always something that’s happened to the garden.”
Ms Spence said she was speaking to police about the garden vandalism.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Enquiries are ongoing and anyone who knows who is responsible should contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting 2903 of January 23, 2026.”
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