The Colored Garden is a story about storytellers: a boy called Sarge and his grandmother, Ruth, whose farm he visits in the wake of his parents’ separation. On the farm is an old slave cemetery that Ruth tends as a beautiful flower garden. It is a remnant from the days when their land was a small patch of a great tobacco plantation. Residing there, from generations long past, are slaves who were laid to rest under the ground they once worked. One marker tells a far different story. It is the marker of an infant that reads, “Kate. Born and died the same week. Budded on earth to blossom in heaven.” And the baby is not all that lies buried in the garden.
As Sarge struggles to understand his parents’ impending divorce, he no longer knows who or what to believe until Grandmother Ruth begins to tell him the adventures of the dead slaves. These spirits become heroes to the boy during this pivotal summer in his life, and the faith he once had in his parents is transferred to them. Listening to Ruth and observing the behavior of the adults around him, Sarge learns that some secrets we keep, while others keep us.
