suzanne, It's eco friendly for sure and it's been done before so go ahead with the plan if this is what you want to do. If you live near farms that use clover for green manure, I;m sure the plants will appear naturally in your yard.

I tried this two ways, and both work fairly well. One way is to just "seed" your existing lawn with clover seed. It helps if you clear a patch of sod here and there so the clover doesn't have to complete so hard. Choose a cloudy day when you expect lots of rain.

The other way is to start some clover plants in plugs and then plant them in the lawn. Clover is deep-rooted and it doesn't transplant happily, so use big cellpacks and don't wait too long.

Make sure you let the new clover plants go to seed so you can establish it your yard. This means laying off the mowing. Also, lay off the lawn "maintenance"-- clover doesn't need fertilizer-- clover fixes its own nitrogen.

The best clover for lawns is the "dutch white" variety. It is low-growing and made especially for lawn substitutes.

My son had a problem getting grass growing on a sandy slope, in Ottawa. He direct seeded it with white clover in early March when there was lots of moisture in the ground. He used a fertilizer spreader to seed it. He now has a nice green slope. Clover roots go much deeper than grass roots do