The title of the box set is taken from the opening verse of the song "St. Stephen", from their album Aoxomoxoa and performed during the 10/11/83 show.

In and Out of the Garden won a Grammy award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. It was the Grateful Dead's second Grammy, following their 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Documenting a mutual love affair between New York City and the Grateful Dead, In and Out of the Garden captures a unique period in the band's touring history. With their 1980 studio album Go to Heaven, the Dead introduced their new keyboardist/singer Brent Mydland, an enduring bandmember whose husky vocals and colorful key-tickling would come to define a significant portion of their '80s sound. In the early part of that decade the group doubled down on touring, and between 1981 and 1983 made Madison Square Garden their East Coast home on numerous occasions. Included in this lengthy collection are six complete MSG concerts, all previously unreleased and bearing the unusual riches of the era. From staples like "Eyes of the World" and "Truckin'" to dusted-off curiosities like "Crazy Fingers" and new songs like "West L.A. Fadeaway" and "Hell in a Bucket," the Dead explored like never before, blissfully out of step with the contemporary pop world for at least a few more years. Perhaps more than any city outside of the Bay Area, New York understood the Dead, and throughout their career extended a warm transcontinental handshake that was enthusiastically returned by the band. You can hear it in the crowd's excited fizz as the band builds to its refrain of "St. Stephen with a rose, in and out of the garden he goes." No complaints here.