Comet PanSTARRS is still with us for 30 to 45 minutes immediately following sunset. Look for it due west 20 degrees below the crescent moon Thursday, March 14. Shining around second magnitude, PanSTARRS at first appears as a modest star. Binoculars — and with ideal viewing conditions, even the unaided eye — will reveal a wispy tail pointing almost straight up. It appears a little higher above the horizon as it nears its peak on the 24th, edging to the northwest, or right, night by...

If you want your high-bush blueberry plants to produce the giant fruit photographed and described in nursery catalogs, then you have to prune them severely. If the plants are not pruned yearly, before April, you’ll get clusters of small berries that are a chore to pick.     Don’t believe the myth that pruning lowers harvest yields. Research has proven time and again that pruning does not affect the yield but does vastly improve quality. You’ll harvest more...

I can’t resist a kitten. For six years I’ve mothered orphan kittens for Patuxent Animal Welfare Society.     But it was the numbers I couldn’t help that made me an activist. Every year in Maryland, 45,000 dogs and cats are destroyed. Maryland ranks 39th on the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s state report card on animal-protection issues.     My passing-60 promise was to get involved in making broader changes, so I got up before dawn one...

Attention lead-foot drivers: Annapolis is watching you.     The capital city is setting up speed cameras in 10 school zones. Drivers clocked going 12 mph over the speed limit from 8am to 6pm will be mailed a $40 fine. Tickets from the cameras don’t come with points and won’t be sent to insurance companies.     Cameras came to the city at the beginning of March — just in time for a political showdown. AAA Mid-Atlantic is working to convince...