An interesting idea for an experiment using rocks to create micro climates

An idea occurred to me on the way home from algebra class. Sepp Holzer is a big proponent of using rocks as thermal batteries. Because the rocks take in heat from solar energy and release it at night, he is able to farm at extreme altitudes. In order to quantity this effect I would like to place recording thermometers on under and around a variety of rocks. This would give us an idea of the air and soil temperate increase by various rocks and sizes. From there we can work out what patterns, in what areas will give us our target microclimate.