The Community Garden Project in the 900 block of Mississippi Street is a place where sociability is cultivated alongside the vegetable and ornamental crops.

So Sharla True, who tends a plot in the communal garden, was outraged when she discovered a vandal had struck, uprooting plants and causing other damage.

“I really feel like the person who did this should be ashamed,” she said.

True has a 4-foot by 20-foot plot in the garden. And more so than some who cultivate plots, she was counting on her crop.

It’s been a tough few months for her, she said, after she suffered a head injury in an October auto accident. On doctor’s advice, she only works about three hours a week cleaning houses, relying on some insurance benefits for income.

She planted fruits and vegetables at two sites in town and was hoping to stock her larder and sell her plot’s bounty at the Lawrence Farmers Market. She also wanted to donate some of what she was growing to the Community Drop-In Center.

“I’m struggling as it is, and it’s just not right,” she said of the vandalism.

She also was discouraged about the hours she spent weeding and preparing the area and studying how to plant – a lengthy process because she has had trouble concentrating since her injury.

“This is not just I stuck some stuff in the ground,” she said.

Dave Loewenstein, a coordinator for the garden, said he was out of town and unaware of what exactly happened. In its about 15 years of existence, the garden has experience some vandalism, he said

“We’ve had minor incidents over the years. Nothing too bad,” Loewenstein said.