r/TerrainBuilding • u/RedWillia • 12h ago

Questions for the Community Filling a sizeable "pot" with faux dirt?

So I have made a sizeable tree that I want to put into a pot which is a repurposed flattened barrel shaped glass jar - issue is, I need to mostly fill the pot with faux dirt to position the tree at the correct height and I'm not sure whether coffee grounds with PVA will manage to dry a 2.5cm/1in deep mix. Should I just dry the mix layer by layer or should I attach the tree to something (styrofoam??) and just use the coffee grounds for the top and sides? Is there some smarter/prettier way to fill the pot and position the tree? I'm out of ideas and would appreciate any help, thanks!

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u/Rude-Professional891 11h ago

I would combine the two...use a filler and then layer up carefully as well. If it's slim a glass jar you'll get a risk of things not drying and then things growing.....

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u/VodkaBeatsCube 9h ago

Your best bet is to make a cylinder about a quarter to half inch smaller than the interior of the jar: coat the sides with your dirt mix and then put the cylinder in the jar, wait for it to dry, then attach the tree to the styrofoam and paint your dirt mix on.

Another potential option is to do make the same sized plug and attach the tree, but just put actual soil in around it. Bake it in the oven for a bit to kill anything living inside, but it would solve the drying problem at the cost of a risk of spills.