The carpet bedding can be found next to the orchard house and in summer months is planted with diminutive foliage plants in geometric patterns. The plants are clipped fortnightly using sheep sheers to form a flat carpet like surface. Each bed requires 10,000 plants which are raised in the nursery at Cragside. During autumn the beds are planted with tulips, pansies and polyanthus in order to provide spring colour.

The last photograph is taken from the Dahlia walk and you can just see the carpet bedding in the background. Behind that the clock tower peeps out from in amongst the trees.

The clock tower originates from the 1860s and was the estate time piece and the pay office.  Staff received their weekly pay in small, numbered, timber boxes about 4in (10cm) square. At the peak of construction there were more than 300 staff working at Cragside: gardeners, stone masons, carpenters, gamekeepers and labourers, all working a twelve-hour day. Under the watchful eye of William Bertram, the Estate Manager, this simple system ensured that all were properly paid. *

*From Cragside Garden Leaflet.