any paving experts on here?

Vibrating tamper is not a necessity but it does make it easier. Crushed lime is what I used on top of the 1" minus rock to get a solid base. We also get the freeze thaw situation here. You could use a hand tamper for the job but renting a vibrating plate tamper for 1/2'day or if you are lucky the local rental place does it by the hour is well worth the $25-$50 to get it done in an hour. I also found using the metal edge strips to lock them in place worked much better than the plastic ones.