I do the same - bend a couple ends of the concrete mesh to lock it together or use some SOLID - not stranded - copper wire which won't corrode to tie it closed. Don't use ty-raps.
The weed barrier cloth I put right up to the tree trunk. Water will pass right thru it, otherwise it would kill plants from lack of water. This is the method I use : Plant the tree. If it's a whip w/ no limbs, I just cut a slit about 1 1/2" long with a utility knife in the center of my landscape cloth ( 36"and or 48" wide X 40" long, ) and drop it down over the top of the whip. I then pile 3 or 4" of crushed limestone chips ( pea-sized ) all over the landscape cloth so it's entirely covered. I wrap the trunk w/ aluminum window screen and tuck the screen down to ground level and then scrape the stone up to it so the bottom of the screen is 4" below the stone chips. This keeps mice / voles from tunneling under the stone and getting to the trunk. Water seeps thru the stone and landscape cloth to get to the tree roots. The stone goes right up to the screen.
If you need to see how to staple the screen shut, look at the post on screening apple trees.
Edit : go back to page 2 of this Fruit Trees thread and look at the title " voles / mice " from Bowhunternw. The last 2 pages of that thread have pix of screens and how to fabricate and staple them.
J-bird's bucket watering method is a good one. I use that method too. Slow trickle watering.