My personal opinion is that that would indeed be helpful, but I have a follow up question to anyone more qualified than I who has come to answer your question: Would there be any benefits of pulling out weeds and dressing said tomato or pepper plants with the freshly plucked weeds? or would that have a negative side effect such as adding too much nitrogen to the soil?

After doing more research I ended up getting Espoma Garden-Tone, which contains poultry manure and lots of other good things as a bonus. I'll use this product around the plants much in the same way I had thought to use the composted manure. It seems like a good organic product.

For those considering my question about use of manure on my plants, thanks!

I use espoma products with good success, I think you will be happy with them. Using the miracle grow will probably be counter productive though as the salts will probably destroy a lot of the added microbes in the espoma fertilizer. I would try to limit and eventually stop your usage of it if you want to build up good healthy soil in the long run.

This is how I side dress two rows of Banana peppers.
{{gwi:66209}}
Same bed today, needs weeding & some more straw.
{{gwi:66210}}

howelbama,

As of yesterday I am using nothing but Garden-Tone. It even looks like great fertilizer! I did the first application of it right when I got home, throughout my vegetable garden. Now today we've had a decent rain so I'm hoping that will help distribute the fertilizer.
My goal is to be doing things organically, so I will no doubt stick with a monthly dose of Garden Tone. Thanks for your input -

MacG, I also really like the Garden-tone products. Most of the time I end up using Rose-Tone in the veggie garden because that is what DH buys for his roseidocaine.

Jolj,your picture makes me long for pine straw. My native pines have short needles. Looking at your pics makes me think I need to start purchasing more pines with long needles. Beautiful.

Macgregor, I'm sure you will be happy with the results, and th rain should definetly help to disperse it in to the soil. It is not going to give you as instant an effect as MG would, but in the long run it will really help to improve your soil. With good amendments season after season, you should find fertilizing less and less necessary. I usually use garden tone early in the season, and then switch to tomato tone when things start to flower. I probably apply some every two to three weeks, but monthly should be sufficient.

Good luck! :)