Hello all,
I am new to this forum although I have been reading the very informative posts for a while. I am very new to gardening. I recently decided to start a vegetable/herb raised garden bed on a tight budget. I built the bed, 80'x3'x2'. I have filled it with dirt abt 3/4th of the way. For the rest of the bed I wanted to fill it with compost. After searching around I got a deal on some chicken compost on craigslist and bought 4 yards of it. The guy dumped it on our side driveway. Only after he dumped it did I realize it had a bad stink also it was very hot in the middle of the pile. He assured me that it was composting for 4 months and it is fully composted. It was black all over and of uniform texture so I know it is composted to some extent, I couldn't argue with him as I am none the wiser.
I hired a couple of guys and we filled up the garden bed with the compost. There is still a yard of the stuff left, which we covered with painters plastic sheets.
Now I started to realize that the stink is not going away on the stuff that is already in the garden bed and it is attracting flies. I already bought some plants hoping to plant these over the weekend on the prepared bed.

So here are my questions,
1) Should I go ahead and plant in the bed?
2) Is there something I can do for the stink?
3) I though of spreading a layer of garden soil on top of bed to try and stop the smell and flies. Would that help?
4) What should I do with the remaining yard of this stuff?

Eagerly awaiting your help.

Thanks in advance,
babu