I think composted manure should be safe for all the uses you mention.

Thank you. I sure hope so!

It would be safe, except the soil mix is loaded with manure, compost, and Rose Tone. I don't know what will happen, but I would be nervous enough to remove the mulch and replace it with leaves or bark. You can harm plants by overdoing organic fertilizers as well as manufactured ones. Probably there are enough nutrients in the soil to fertilize for a year or two.

That is what I feared. I will remove the top manure and put it around established plants. That is okay, right? Even this late in the year?

The big problem with mulching with manure is that instead of suppressing weeds, it provides a good growing medium. A lot of people complain about manure 'bringing in' weed seeds, when what it is probably doing is providing excellent germination of the weeds seeds already there.

It would be OK to put an inch or two of composted manure around the other plants.

I hope you included a substantial amount of mineral soil in your soil mix and not just bagged organic matter.

Mad Gallica, I will look out for the weeds. In the spring I always put down wood chip mulch, about 2-3 inches deep on the top. Thanks for your input.

Michael, the compost I added was well aged stuff from our own pile: kitchen scraps, leaves, etc. Plus I added the bagged composted manure and our soil, which happens to be quite sandy. I have already removed the top layer of manure from around the bands. My Cramoisi Superior and Deuil de Dr. Renaud (sp?) were the happy beneficiaries.