I didn’t dare carry out much pruning during the heatwaves — I wasn’t sure how plants might cope with being attacked during a drought — so now that the rain has returned to my area, I’ve been catching up in a big way.

“Pruning” sounds like something precise involving a pair of secateurs, when what I’m doing is taking a cordless hedge-trimmer to everything in the garden that’s overgrown and hacking it back as far as I can reach. Frankly, there’s not much science involved.

This leaves me with a huge pile of clippings to deal with. I don’t want to throw all that material onto my compost heap because the heap is still very dry. I’m afraid of inadvertently adding to a fire risk if the heat returns for a farewell performance later in the month. Besides, the lack of rain has slowed down decomposition in the heap to such an extent that there isn’t room to add more.

Surface composting may be one solution. It’s really a form of mulching, and it can be as basic at it sounds. On an empty bed, perhaps where main-crop potatoes have been harvested, you simply spread garden waste directly onto the ground in a layer not more than two or three inches (5-7.5 cm) deep.

It will gradually rot over winter and be taken into the soil by earthworms. Anything that’s left when you’re ready to use the bed in spring can just be raked off — and, yes, added to the compost heap. When I’ve used this approach before I’ve found it works well, though there are caveats.

For one thing, it’s not very pretty and is certainly more suited to an allotment than an ornamental front garden, to put it mildly. If you’re adding kitchen waste to the mix, be careful not to include anything that rats would find tasty. Annual weeds are fine provided they haven’t formed seeds, and the tops of perennial weeds are also OK, but exclude their roots along with any diseased matter such as blighted tomato leaves.

You could cover the plant material with a thin layer of soil, which makes it look more respectable and might speed decomposition. Or, time and energy permitting, you could go one rung higher up the in situ composting ladder and try sheet mulching, or what the Americans call lasagne composting.

In its simplest form, this starts with a base layer of wet cardboard or newspaper, to prevent weed growth from below. On top of that you put a nitrogen-rich “green layer,” about two inches (5cm) deep, of garden and kitchen waste and grass clippings. Next comes a “brown layer,” of dry, carbon-rich material such as leaves, straw, or shredded paper.

Keep alternating until your creation is around 18 inches or two feet (45-60 cm) high. Top it with a couple of inches of good soil, mulch or finished compost. It’ll shrink over winter and be ready for planting into next spring.