Every flower on this half-acre runs on a heap of rotting things in the corner, and I think we should talk about that more honestly.
My compost method: pile it up, keep roughly a balance of green and brown, turn it when I remember, and wait a year. That’s the entire system. No thermometer has ever been involved. The worms are the management.
What actually matters
Only two failures are common — too wet and slimy (add torn cardboard), or too dry and dusty (add greens and a watering can). Everything else is just time doing what time does.
The finished stuff smells like a forest floor and goes on the beds each autumn, a blanket the garden eats by spring. It is the cheapest magic I know.