Does "manicure" only apply to caring for hands?

(from a Yahoo Answers post)

The words pedicure and manicure are derived from Latin words. Pedicure came from the latin word pedis meaning feet and cura meaning care. Thus pedicure means the care of the feet. Manicure came from the latin word manus meaning hands and, again cura, meaning care. So manicure is the care of the hands.

But as others have indicated, whereas "pedicure" only ever applies to feet, "manicure" can be metaphorically applied to such things as lawns, ornamental bushes, and pubic hair. And nose and ear hair – for which you often get suitable implements in a manicure set.

Moving further into metaphorical territory, a Google search produces quite a few hits for "manicured flower beds", "borders", "fields", and even "fiction" and "manners".

You are right. NOAD:

manicure |ˈmanɪkjʊə|

noun

a cosmetic treatment of the hands involving cutting, shaping, and often painting of the nails, removal of the cuticles, and softening of the skin.

verb [ trans. ] give a manicure to.

• [usu. as adj. ] ( manicured) trim neatly : manicured lawns.

ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from French, from Latin manus ‘hand’ + cura ‘care.’

Yes you can manicure a bush, although the phrase 'a manicured lawn' is more common.