Hi Kate! In our experience here, grass will grow pretty much anywhere and usually where you don't want it to, but then we have a rather 'wild' lawn i.e. quackgrass... ;-) I guess it all depends on how you are going to maintain it; if you intend to mow the grass between the stones w/a lawnmower, the stones should be as flush with the ground as possible to avoid the mower blade from hitting them, which would also eliminate the tripping hazard. We have some flagstone paths here that are buried flush w/the ground; every so often we have to remove some of the grass as it tends to almost bury the stones over time. I don't know if you've been to graveyards where the headstones are placed flat on the ground, but over the years the grass almost overwhelms the stones. It's just a matter of routine maintenance for us, we like the flagstones very much. We're Zone 4 here and keep an eye on the stones we mow over every spring--sometimes the frost heaves them up a bit too much, but it isn't terribly hard to reset them deeper. Good luck with whatever you decide to do! Karen

Hi. I plan to lay about 200 sq. ft. of flagstone over a grassy area leaving about 2 inches between each stone. Rather than excavate the whole thing, I thought I would cut out the individual pieces of grass to fit the stone, add 2 in. of sand, use a level to make sure every thing is flat. That way the grass is already growing between the stones. What's the opinion of this method?

In response to the original question, it's not the tripping you need to worry about but the ankle twisting when you step at the edge of a stone. Make it flush.