It's getting near that time of year again. These were the steps I took last year wrapping my in ground trees. It may be an overkill but we had a pretty bad winter and the trees suffered virtually no die back.   Tightly tie up tree branches.  Trim as necessary.

  Wrap in burlap.

  Hammer 4 stakes around tree.

  Staple tar paper to stakes.

  Fill space between burlap and tar paper with dry leaves.

  Add second layer of tar paper.

  Fill with leaves.

  Wrap in blue tarp, leaving top open.

  Top view of tarp opening.

  Top off with garage can.
 

Very nice bill, that is a great job. I plan on planting in ground next year and will probably do similar to you. I also hear recommendations for pine shavings as insulator. Never such a thing as overdoing things in our climate. Kudos kudos!!!!

Nice work. Glad we dont have to do this in Louisiana. You always suppose to were layers to stay warm. Lol.

Great pictures.. What varieties are you doing with this? I have a lot of steep hills on my property and plan on planting at the base and training the tree to grow up hill. Might help with winterizing. Looks like your set up will work good...

Chad,  I did this on two unknown dark figs that I planted 25 years ago and never covered.  Two winters ago we had a brutal winter and both died to the ground but came back strong.  That was why I covered last year.

I also did a scaled down version on a one year old unknown Greek white fig I planted in the Spring of 2014.  It also survived last winter.

  Cut bottom out of old garbage can and staked handles to the ground.

  Filled with leaves.

  Topped with second can.

very nice. gives me some ideals, thanx for sharing

Hey Bill, we should split some Sicilian Reds, I want that too.