In the Garden reflects the pervasive influence of Paul Klee's late style on Noland. Noland had first become aware of Klee in 1948 while he was a student at Black Mountain College. This appreciation was strengthened in 1950 when he moved to Washington, D.C., where he began to study Klee’s works, spending long hours in The Phillips Collection's Klee Room.
In the Garden, part of The Playground series, depicts a girl among motifs that evoke a playground. Idiomatic signs and symbols reminiscent of Klee are placed across the surface of the painting in a seemingly random but structured formation. In the center is a figure of a girl, identified by an X on her dress and a half-moon face with one eye closed, similar to Klee's schematic delineations of the figure. Acknowledging that this work was executed under the influence of Klee, Noland commented that the integration of symbols and color was of utmost importance. The vibrant orange-red background, new to Noland's palette at this time, has a great deal of tonal variation that he achieved by painting the orange-red over layers of gray and white. This variation is particularly evident around the linear motifs, each of which has a grayish, orange-red aura. He has thus emphasized line as well as motion.
Duncan Phillips was an early admirer of Noland’s work. Phillips wrote to Noland early in 1952 inviting him to bring him a number of his paintings from which they would select a few for a planned exhibition of Washington artists. After choosing In the Garden, Phillips purchased it for the permanent collection, perhaps because of its homage to Klee, but more likely because of Noland's subtle harmonies of color and line.