Read the following poem given below and answer the question.

A GIRL'S GARDEN

A NEIGHBOUR of mine in the village
likes to tell how one spring
When she was a girl on the farm, she did
A childlike thing.

One day she asked her father
To give her a garden plot
To plant and tend and reap herself,
And he said, "Why not?"

In casting about for a corner
He thought of an idle bit
Or walled-off ground where a shop had stood,
And he said, "Just it."

And he said, "That ought to make you
An ideal one-girl farm,
And give you a chance to put some strength
On your slim-jim arm".

It was not enough of a garden,
Her father said, to plough;
So she had to work it all by hand,
But she don't mind now.

She wheeled the dung in the wheelbarrow
Along a stretch of road;
But she always ran away and left
Her not-nice load,

And hid from anyone passing.
And then she begged the seed.
She says she thinks she planted one
Of all things but weed.

A hill each of potatoes,
Radishes, lettuce, peas,
Tomatoes, beets, beans, pumpkins, corn.
And even fruit trees.

And yes, she was long mistrusted
That a cider apple tree
In bearing there today is hers,
Or at least may be.

Her crop was a miscellany
When all was said and done,
A little bit of everything,
A great deal of none.

According to Robert Frost, the Father gave the girl a garden plot to help her :

strengthen her arms and own a farm

The correct answer is Option (3) → strengthen her arms and own a farm.

The father says:

“That ought to make you
An ideal one-girl farm,
And give you a chance to put some strength
On your slim-jim arm”.

This clearly shows that he gave her the garden plot so she could manage her own small farm and become physically stronger by working in it.

In the context of the poem, ‘owning a farm’ is used figuratively and playfully by the father to describe the small piece of land he gives his daughter. He calls it an ‘ideal one-girl farm’ because it allows her to independently plant, tend, and reap crops by herself, just like a real farmer. Though it is only a small garden plot and not a real commercial farm, it becomes her own space to learn responsibility, hard work, and farming skills. By calling it a ‘farm’ instead of merely a ‘garden,’ the father encourages her effort and treats her project seriously while also helping her build physical strength and character.

While she did eventually plant vegetables and fruit trees (Option 1) and grow apples (Option 4), those were the results of her gardening, not the specific reason the father granted her the plot. The father’s intent was to give her a project of her own that would help her physically develop.