Thanks for your diary, OrangeClouds115!

Regarding the importance of microorganisms in soil, I wonder if you're familiar with Dr. Elaine Ingham's work.  I was lucky to see a lecture of hers last spring in Portland, Oregon, and she described, among other results, really impressive increases in tomato yields in commercial gardening, in a trial in South Africa, if I remember correctly, moving first to organic gardening, and then to her "soil food web" program, which centers around making the environment healthy for the microorganisms plants rely on, and adding them back to the soil through the application of very carefully made compost teas.  Her consulting business's website is here (they'll test your soil and tell you about the numbers and health of the microbes there):  Soil Foodweb Inc.

A book for home gardeners describing the techniques Dr. Ingham recommands is Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web