To help protect my 1st year outdoor trees, I bent them over and buried them with topsoil.  Hopefully the soil will provide enough insulation to prevent any substantial cold damage, and in the spring I'll rake the dirt out to form the edges of watering basins for the trees.
 
 
 

Here's what it looked like in September, can't find anything more recent:

Very interesting, I bet it works and you will have a head start come this spring. Good luck and good growing.

waynea check ur pm

How many hours did that take, James?  Good luck in the spring.  I'm sure you will be heavily rewarded.

Hope that works for you James.  We are in the same zone and will be interested to see the results come spring.  Good luck brother!

Nice work! From what I've read it's a common practice up North like NY so it should work good. Looks like you've done a lot of work boss! Best of luck!

James,
I hope it works for you.  But last winter I buried a fig plant in a similar way and it died. 
I am in 6a you are in 6b and last winter was harsh. 
To be safe I think you also have to cover them with a tarp or similar.

That should help, Daniel.  Mice can be a problem, you may want to consider setting some mice traps/deterrents/poison in with the figs under the garbage cans.

Great idea if You're covering small trees! You could line the inside of the garbage cans with an insulating material like a fiberglass blanket or rubber sheet to make it more effective against the freeze, kind of like a cooler. Keep the weather out!

Wow...nice job there. Looks like a lot of work but it should be worth it!

That looks like a good way to cover them.   The espalier fig that I am growing in the community fruit tree orchard is being covered in a similar way.     Our available material was mulch, and some of it was decomposed.    I piled it on top and hope that it deep enough. We have already had single digit temps.  There is always a looming rodent risk - voles or mice.   I'll probably check on it every so often to see how it is doing.   I will also put a tarp on top.   Here is the posting that shows the fig in the orchard - http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/espalier-fig-project-japanese-method-7094805?&trail=50     I also covered up a pomegranate that we are growing by bending the branches to the ground and covering with the same mix.

Byron (Ingevald)