Robert Frost

A Girl's Garden

A NEIGHBOR 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
Of 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

slim-jim arm

Father's teasing nickname for her thin arms. The hyphenated compound is playful dialect—he's encouraging her while acknowledging she's small for farm work.

: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.

not-nice load

The poem's only euphemism. She'll say 'dung' directly but uses prissy understatement for the social embarrassment of being seen with manure. The contrast shows her real concern isn't the work but being watched.

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 has long mistrusted
:That a cider apple tree
In bearing there to-day 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.
Now when she sees in the village
:How village things go,
Just when it seems to come in right,
:She says, “I know!
It’s as when I was a farmer——”

never by way of advice

Key turn. She's learned something about failure and scale but refuses to lecture others with it. The poem respects her restraint—she's wise enough not to weaponize her own experience.

:Oh, never by way of advice!
And she never sins by telling the tale
:To the same person twice.

same person twice

Final joke undercuts any sentimentality. She's not annoying about her garden story—she spreads it around instead of boring the same audience. Self-awareness as social grace.

Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Father's Language

Notice how much of this poem is direct quotation from the father. "Why not?" "Just it." "That ought to make you / An ideal one-girl farm." Frost gives him casual, encouraging speech—no grand pronouncements, just a parent finding a yes.

The father's teasing is affectionate: "slim-jim arm" acknowledges she's small for farm work while giving her the plot anyway. He's not protecting her from failure or managing her project. "It was not enough of a garden... to plough" means he's thought about scale but lets her work it by hand. He sets her up to learn through doing.

This matters because the poem is really about what she learned from failure. The garden produces "A little bit of everything, / A great deal of none"—classic overreach. But the father never says "I told you so." His initial generosity ("Why not?") makes her later wisdom possible. She can use the memory because it wasn't poisoned by parental smugness.

Village Economics

The final stanzas shift from childhood memory to adult observation. "Now when she sees in the village / How village things go" suggests she's watching community projects, businesses, or plans. "Just when it seems to come in right" implies the moment of failure or miscalculation.

"I know!" is her recognition of the pattern: ambitious start, scattered effort, disappointing yield. Her childhood garden becomes a diagnostic tool for understanding why things fail—too many crops, not enough focus. The miscellany problem scales up.

But Frost's real interest is in her discretion. "Oh, never by way of advice!" means she doesn't lecture people with her garden story. She doesn't say "You're making the same mistake I made." The poem respects this restraint—she's learned something true about overextension but knows the difference between recognition and prescription. The final joke ("never sins by telling the tale / To the same person twice") adds self-awareness: she knows the story's usefulness and her own tendency to repeat it, so she rations it out. Wisdom with social grace.