wireme
Masterpiece
Yeah, that's the fear, with good early snowfalls and cold hardy trees you and I usually wouldn't need anything, just plunk them on the ground, but you never know.
Perlite would probably be good, moisten it up a bit, frozen it won't blow away!
A friend of mine has been using pea gravel in Calgary and his climate is worse than mine, cold with no snow is the norm plus warming chinooks sometimes. Lay down a cloth, shovel it into those big beanbags/super sacks for summer and use it year after year. I just am using pumice because I happen to have a pile of it. Couldn't find it locally so went to the mine and came home with a trailer full. I've been burying deciduous trees right over trunks and branches, as high as anything I don't want to lose to rodents, they came out great last year.
Some of the bigger boxes this year are being mulched with wood chips, which I also happen to have a pile of. I plan on spreading the chips under the benches next spring and inoculating them with mushroom spawn for a mushroom bed under the trees, make further use of water and fertilizer. It'll be like getting two birds stoned at once, should be good.
