The baskets will not be a problem for the roots and will give the roots the protection when the tree is small enough to be killed by a few hungry gophers. A longer range solution I think is to become proficient as a gopher catcher but like womans work it is never over. Al

.30-06 is effective. Requires that you catch Mr. Moose red handed. Saves on your grocery bills. Note: The Fish & Game people frown on this. 8 foot game fence comes is 330 foot rolls. 1 roll does 100 x 65 feet. You need 11 foot posts for it. One every 16 feet. You can put the posts further apart if you run a high tension steel wire at the top, and hang the fence off of that. Keeps the top from sagging. If you have a tractor, rent a post pounder. That way you can set them much more quickly, and get a better set. Premark your locations to save rental time. Measure your posts and put a mark on them with spray paint so you get consistent depth. Do the corner ones first, run a chunk of baling twine from top to top. You will need to do the usual fence corner bracing. I think you can use a standard 7 foot post for this. Co-op sometimes has sales on game fence amounting to about 20% off. Note: Deer are slinky and will crawl under the fence. Rabbits will burrow under. 30" chicken wire attached 6-8" up the fence then down and flat will discourage this behaviour. Hoof rats don't see worth spit. Flag the fence every few feet with stuff that flaps in the wind. Old grocery bags work well. Deer won't get through if the hit it, but Mr. Moose with a full head of steam can cruise through it. Deer, in theory, can jump an 8 foot fence, but they are uncertain where the top is, so they won't try. Usually. They also won't jump if they can't see their landing point. You can use the game fence as a trellis for squash and cucumbers and the leftover stems will make life less certain for the hoof rats.

If the trees are short enough, you can tent them with plastic to help hold in the heat. Adding buckets, barrels or molasses feed tubs full of water would help. When I use water like that, I fill up the containers early in the day so they can soak up sunlight and heat up the water somewhat. With water as a solar collector under thick plastic (when I've done this I've used 4 mm or 6 mm plastic), you often can keep the plants warmer than the surrounding air temperature. The plastic needs to go all the way down to the ground to keep the cool air away from the trees. This is pretty effective with young, fairly short and fairly small trees. The larger the trees, the harder it is to protect them, especially in high wind. I'm not even going to try to protect my plum trees as they've already been exposed to multiple nights in the 20s. With the peach trees, they're so small that I could cover them up, but I won't bother unless the wind really drops this afternoon. I know people who've put little heaters on the ground underneath trees tented with plastic or light bulbs or heat lamp type light bulbs like you use in a chicken coop in the trees themselves, but there's no guarantees with any of these methods. They also can become fire hazards in some conditions. As part of growing fruit in OK, I just accept that about 1 year out of 3 either a hard frost or late freeze while or after the trees are blooming will wipe out the crop, and I don't go to extraordinary lengths to protect them. My trees are too old and, therefore, too big to protect unless I come up with a circus tent or something, which isn't likely. Good luck protecting your trees. Dawn

Small fruit trees can be covered with a light tarp at night and removed in the morning. Sometimes, placing a light bulb under the tarp can help too. Some say stringing Christmas tree lights also help with keeping frost from forming on the tree. Planting fruit trees on higher elevation whenever possible as cold air sinks. Another option is to place heat absorbing materials under the trees during the day that release the heat at night to keep the frost from forming.