Located on our grounds are eleven raised gardens, some actually contained in boats and canoes. A local Jr. High youth attended our gardens and produced a bountiful harvest of lettuce. This produce is sold to The Nutty Bean Café, a local restaurant in Lakefield. This project helps mentor and develop entrepreneurial skills in Jr. High students.

We are grateful for the various community members who help make these gardens possible. Often we have volunteers that help prepare the gardens with topsoil donated by Scott’s Concrete and also complete yard work around the LYU House. We are also thankful for the yearly donation from Lakefield Horticultural Society that helps us purchase lettuce seeds.

This will be our last season in the LYU Canoe Garden as the owner of the 10 Hill St. property has decided to sell. LYU will be vacating the premises on October 31, 2024.

Open Mid-May until Mid-October

Who doesn’t enjoy a good book? We have discovered that a lot of people enjoy borrowing a book or sharing a book at the Little Free Library situated across the road from our LYU House, overlooking the beautiful Trent Severn Canal.

There are 25,000 Little Free Libraries registered all over the world, and Mary Marsden initiated setting up four in the community of Lakefield. Chris Jones and a wood working volunteer designed and installed the library with the help of two local volunteers. The library contains three shelves of books and a bulletin board for community and LYU advertising. LYU keeps two shelves of the library stocked with good quality reading and Christian stories from May until Thanksgiving. The library is used by both locals and touring boaters (as they walk from the canal locks into the village).

Also placed beside the library are a memorial bench and two plaques in memory of Dylan Gammon and Matt Cournyea. These two young men are greatly missed in our community.