ok, so it seems that some of the members just suffered what I did in February 2012 with my -25°C.
As a result, that year, I lost 8 trees. Those trees were already productive and would have been fully productive in the summer of 2012 - the only problem was, they didn't wake up to see Summer 2012.
As a result, I started then searching for a winter protection that would be cheap, efficient, yet still handy to setup and to keep off somewhere during the Summer time when it is not in use.
In 2012, I had some protections in place, but they were just not efficient.

My protection is called the eighty liters trashcan protection :) .

Images being worth a thousand words. Here they go :
Pic1 : The trees are higher than the trashcan is deep . So work some way out for the stems.
 


Pic2: front : My three "goutte d'or" . with my bigger ufti behind.
 
 
Pic 3: Front right - the tree is small enough to fit in the trashcan.

 


Pic 4: one ufti tree. Trashcan is sealed to the ground with a stack. The eighty liters trashcan is filled with compost and the dark bag over is the bag from the compost :)
 


Pic 5: Is your tree too big in width ? use two trashcans. One for stems on the left, and one for the ones on the right.



Pic 6: Almost full of compost. That compost was spread in the garden at Spring time to be used as fertilizer for the dirt.
Sometimes you need to tie the stems for the trashcan to slide down with no injuries to the tree .
 

Hope that gives you ideas and hopes. I'm in Zone7 !
I often read people stating that after some years they'll stop the winter protections ... I'm planning to set them in place each winter !
At Summer time, simply stack the trashcans for reduced storage space :) .

Thanks so much!! Great Idea!! : )

jdsfrance this is simple and great idea and it keeps a tree form rather than bush! 
I imagine in most years the branches above the trash can will have died back?
Do you think wood chips would also work?

Hi Pino,
I started using this technique two years ago after the bad winter of 2012 .
For now I have had good results - so that is little die-back.
Wood chips would probably let too much air circulate and get in - but are better than nothing of course.
The idea is to have a heat sink - and the compost of dark color does help IMO .
The sun will heat the dark trashcan that transmits some °C to the compost that will give a warmer space for the fig tree.
Sometimes even 2°C make already a big difference .

this might help.

For me, in zone 8a, I still have to winterize. If I don't, fig production will be minimal come Summer. And some, are still burned and slowly die. One of my largest trees, Ronde de Bordeaux, use to be huge until we got hit with 5 degree temps the past 2 years in a row.

This link might help....

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/make-your-own-fig-jacket-5644862?pid=1289712658