St. Croix was deluged with heavy rains in October and November of 2024. This is good, and bad.
Bad news first: the rain has been a little much for some of our crops. Persistent and continuous weekly flooding caused the topsoils at ARTfarm to be excessively waterlogged. When the tiny aerated gaps in the topsoil fill with rainwater, it causes plant roots to suffer from a lack of oxygen. Various crops are dying because of this condition. Papayas in particular are suffering and we’ve lost about a third of them. We have had to re-seed and re-plant crop successions multiple times in the hopes that conditions will improve. The cloudy conditions have also had an effect on the ability of leafy greens to grow properly. Wahhh-wah.
The great news is that we have more stored rainwater than we’ve ever had at this point in the season. Our ginger, turmeric, yams, established fruit trees and coconuts are looking great. We are also experimenting with cover crops planted near our food crops, and those beds are performing better in these overly wet conditions. Farmer Luca is experimenting with organic biodegradable paper mulch on our watermelon beds, with pretty good results so far.
ARTfarm is not giving up and will continue experimenting and learning from these epic and relentless conditions, which may be the new normal.
As usual at this time of year, we have some great new volunteers and are always looking for more helpers. Tell a friend if you know someone who might be interested in learning more about sustainable, regenerative gardening practices — we would always love and appreciate some help in the gardens and with a few other tasks as well.
Stay tuned for information on when we’ll finally open for the season, and thanks to all our loyal customers who have been checking in!
The great reward for those elite few of you who have read this entire email is that we will have a salad mix pop-up on Wednesday December 11th with sweet salad greens, radishes with green tops and garlic chives. 4:30 PM to 5 PM. Regular farm stands will hopefully start at the end of December. Ho-ho-ho!
Love, ARTfarmers
ARTfarm on St. Croix, USVI 
miss you!
Miss you too.