Powell fourth-grade student loves to garden, honored as statewide winner in cabbage contest

A giant 11-pound cabbage earned Korbyn Warren statewide recognition, but the plant was just one of many the young gardener grew last year.

Korbyn’s flourishing garden features a variety of veggies and fruits, including tomatoes, kale, strawberries, peppers, spinach, raspberries, pumpkins, sunflowers, cucumbers and more.

“Every year my garden gets bigger,” said Korbyn, who is a fourth-grader at Westside Elementary School.

He was recently named the Wyoming state winner in the National Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program and won $1,000.

Through the program, Korbyn and his classmates got small cabbage plants as third-graders last year. Korbyn actually found two cabbages growing in the pot he received. His award-winning cabbage reached 11 pounds, while the other tipped the scale at 10 pounds.

“It was a lot of cabbage,” said Stephanie Warren, his mom.

Korbyn uses boxes and barrels to grow most of his plants, so he planted the cabbages at his great-grandma’s garden.

“If they don’t have enough room, they won’t grow to their full potential,” Stephanie said. 

Korbyn’s great-grandmother, Patricia Cline, first nurtured his love for gardening, so it’s fitting that he grew his prized cabbage in her garden.

Cline introduced Korbyn to gardening when he was in pre-school. Eventually, the hobby flourished.

“After he started helping my grandma, he asked, ‘Why can’t we have our own garden at home?’” Stephanie said. 

Korbyn started growing his own garden at home when he was in the first grade.

“He’s definitely the reason why we started gardening and why we keep going with it,” Stephanie said.

Korbyn and Grandma Cline recently looked at seed catalogues together to plan their gardens. 

He has learned about climate zones, when to put seeds into the ground and how to best care for different plants. He also has learned which plants do well next to each other — and which ones don’t.

“It is fun to see how much he does know about it, how much he researches things,” Stephanie said.

Over the years, he has expanded.

“He grows an entire herb garden as well,” Stephanie said.

Korbyn also has started cooking with produce from his garden. He especially enjoys eating tomatoes.

“I like to make salads,” he said.

The Warren family — which includes his dad, John, and older brother, Kyler — ate plenty of cabbage last year after Korbyn grew more than 20 pounds of it.

They made a lot of coleslaw and grandma’s kraut biscuits, Korbyn said.

He also has tried new recipes with his produce, including zucchini bread and cookies.

Korbyn starts certain seeds indoors before transplanting the young plants outside. He has sold extra plants for a small fee. When it’s time to harvest, Korbyn also shares his vegetables, fruits and herbs with others —including family, friends and a pet.

“I have a bearded dragon that also eats kale,” Korbyn said.

The pet’s name is Nybrok — Korbyn spelled backwards.

He has found other animals also are interested in his flourishing garden.

Squirrels feasted on his sunflower seeds last year, Stephanie said.

Birds also help themselves to Korbyn’s garden.

“They ate my strawberries,” he said. This year, he’s going to add more protection for the plants to hopefully keep squirrels and birds out.

Korbyn has learned a lot about gardening through trial and error. For sunflowers, he recommends a support beam of some kind as they grow taller.

While gardening takes a lot of hard work, patience and dedication, it’s a passion Korbyn plans to continue pursuing as he grows older. He has thought about starting his own greenhouse someday.

A green thumb is in his genes. Not only has he learned about gardening from his great-grandma Cline, his great-grandfather, Bill Jackson, homesteaded on Heart Mountain and the family has farmed for decades.

“It’s kind of a different version of that — a new generation of farming,” Stephanie said.