LOVE STORY.

I HAVE A PROBLEM: I go crazy over houses and gardens. We're talking instant, uncontrollable infatuation, the kind that leaves you blindsided and weak in the knees like a teenager. And just like in high school, the object of my affection is rarely the picture-perfect hotshot--the captain of the football team or the turnkey McMansion. Where's the fun in that? Give me the projects, the fixer-uppers, the diamonds in the rough; the shy boy in the back of the classroom, the creaking Victorian with an attic full of rats. Which is all a roundabout way of saying that makeovers are my jam.

This issue is for everyone out there whose heart beats faster for an older home. The first time I met Rusti Porter and Martin Geraghty, owners of Sonoma's The Wolf & Horseshoe (page 33), I recognized them as kindred spirits--a couple audacious enough to take on the revamp of a rambling 1960s compound with slumpstone walls and a field of sheep. Same thing with Flora Grubb, founder of the seminal San Francisco nursery that helped spur our current succulent craze. What the modern horticulture maven did in her own garden (page 40) taps into a deeper emotional resonance: the desire to nurture and heal, to create aesthetic inspiration from a place of upheaval.

Because it's never just about the plants or the pillows, is it? It's about the profound effect that a setting of great beauty has on your soul. That's why institutions like the Virginia Robinson Gardens in Southern California are well worth preserving--and why it's my honor to represent Sunset at the historic estate's 30th Annual Garden Tour on May 19 (visit sunset.com/rgt for more info). Come look for me that day at the luncheon; I'll be the one swooning over the specimen palms like a girl at her very first dance.

IRENE EDWARDS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | @irene_sunset | reoderleffers@sunset.com