Mid April Update, Soil Testing Delimma

Once again, I've been annoyingly busy with work. The fact that my busy season at work coincides with the start of the spring gardening season is something I will reconcile as soon as possible.
I have, however, found some time to garden and accomplished a few task. First, I finally sent in the soil sample I've been threatening to collect for 6 months now. And the result is - I wish I hadn't. I'm more confused than ever. And the internet isn't helping. My results came back that my phosphorous is sky high, so high that it is probably binding up other vital elements and causing poor growth and chlorosis. I can tolerate many ailments in a plant, but chlorosis gets me down. I hate plants with yellow leaves. I even hate plants that are supposed to have yellow leaves. I believe anyone who has ever had to garden in a region where plants are prone to chlorosis would never buy, or even consider buying, a yellow variegated plant. While we are on the subject, any variegation is tacky in my opinion.
So my phosphorous is high, what to do? A&M sent a handout with recommendation to not add phosphorous fertilizer or high phosphorous compost for 5 to 7 years. Since I am trying to garden organically, and compost is kind the whole point of the organic gardening, and I am not likely to test my compost every 6 months, I was not happy with this turn of events. Some quick googling revealed that my garden phosphorous is at the center of a hotly contested debate. On one side is A&M and on the other is Howard Garrett. A&M's philosophy was outlined within the handout - I had, through excess fertilizer (no) or compost too high in phosphorous (yes - turkey manure compost makes up 1/6 of my garden soil) overloaded my soil with phosphorous and I need to knock it off until the next year of jubilee. Garrett says A&M's test is wrong, that they take no account of how a plant actually uses and uptakes nutrients and my phosphorous is likely fine and that I should continue to add compost and organic fertilizers as need be. Mr. Garrett recommends not testing your soil at A&M, but using a private lab (one he has no monetary association with, I'm sure) that will give radically different results when testing the same soil due to A&M's outdated testing methods. I went to A&M, I have Garrett's book - I'm torn. I'm an evidence based, scientific method kind of guy, so I need to have look at the research and consult some experts. I guess for the spring I'll just keep on adding some of my home made compost when I plant and take it easy on the high phosphorous fertilers (John Dromgooles Flower Power, Medina Hasta Grow).
We had big rain storms at the end of last week and my gardens are officially out of control. My potatoes are all waist high and have blooms. My tomatoes continue to thrive and I even have one little green tomato. The onion, garlic and shallots are still going strong, I understand I am to leave them in the ground until the tops yellow and lay over (in this case, I guess I'll accept yellowing from these plants). Some of the onions are blooming. I pulled out the parlsey and arugula and escarole as they were all bolting, but left in my cilantro to bloom. In the back of my mind I think I read somewhere that cilantro blooms attract beneficial insects, but even if that is not true, I am going to let them go to seed and try to collect my own coriander.
I am having a problem with pill bugs. I think I have too much mulch in my vegetable garden, too close to my plants. They are nibbling any leaves that are too close to the ground, but the real problem is that they have killed two bean plants and three courgettes by eating through the stems. I have read to put out diatamaceous earth. I also read to put out grapefruit halves and just throw the halves, full of pill bugs, away every morning. I think I'll try the grapefruit first, following one of my main rules of gardening - try what is cheap or what you already have on hand. Grapefruit halves meeting both of these criteria.
Back to onions, garlic and shallots - I think next year they will be booted from the vegetable garden to the cottage garden to open up more space. No point in protecting something that nothing really wants to eat. My next experiment in incorporating vegetables into the cottage garden will be okra. I've never grown okra, but from what I can tell their blooms look like hollyhocks. Also, I found okra on a list of plants deer will eat but don't like to. I figure if I tuck them into and behind some of my stinkier and more prickly plants (rosemary and yucca for example), the deer might leave them alone.
I've also made time to buy some plants. Shocking, I know. I bought two Lindhiemer Sennas to replace the ones I lost in the frost (one of which might still be alive, now that I look again), a fig ivy to cover my pump house and an impulse buy of a non-fruiting olive tree (99 cents - how am going to walk away from that). I went to Barton Springs Nursery in Westlake, which is great. The best native plant selection I've seen. The most 4 inch pots of natives I've seen, a real boon to a gardener with more time than money. I know that this blog is starting to look like a review of local garden centers the way I spread my purchasing around, but this place is amazing. The best in town.
Next up for the garden - mowing what little grass I have for our 4th annual croquet tournament (everyone is invited!), drip irrigation, okra seeds, planting my sunflower starts, probably purchasing more plants from some new nursery that I will tell you all about.