Slow or Cold Composting

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Cold composting works well if you are if you don't have the time needed to tend the compost pile at least every other day, have little yard waste, and are not in a hurry to use the compost.

Keep weeds and diseased plants out of the mix since the temperatures reached with this type of composting will probably not be high enough to kill the seeds and disease-causing organisms.

Another liability of cold or slow composting are a slower rate of decomposition and a higher risk of pests digging up buried wastes.

Add yard waste as it accumulates.

Shredding or chopping speeds up the process. To easily shred material, run your lawn mower over small piles of weeds and trimmings.

This method of composting has been shown to be better at suppressing soil-borne diseases than hot composting. It also leaves more bits of organic material that aren't decomposed. Those bits can be screened out if desired.

A few examples of cold or slow composting are sheet, trench, cold bin, and heap composting.

It's also possible to use cold composting to develop organic matter throughout yard. Create cold heaps wherever you need rich compost—under trees and shrubs, in beaten up places, in the area that will be a future season's garden, and so on. Over the period of a year or two, the content will decay, introducing beneficial organic matter into the soil..

Portions of this article are courtesy of the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service.

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