Just sitting here nodding in agreement with a lot of posts. I think the most important thing at this point is to look at your property and decide the functions you will use it for down the road so you don't ruin the space when you get around to addressing it. Yes, leave access for getting trucks and machinery to various parts of the property, even on three acres. Especially on three acres you plan to fill generously with trees. Yes on considering some groves and avoiding onesie-twosies and when the tree bug bites you, and it will, it's very enticing to want 'one of everything' and three of nothing and the visuals on that can be busy and disjointed. You have a big house, and need to consider proportions so that the trees planted near it don't come off looking dwarfed and the house monstrous. We have an epidemic here of mini-mansions festooned with dwarf weeping cherry trees, the branches pruned abruptly like a bowl haircut. We also found it more logical to start close and move out with our plantings. Although we are not close to any other dwellings, I use plantings as visual blockades to scenes I don't care to see and for privacy, so do look out your windows in the general direction of any tree you consider planting to make sure it DOESN'T block what you want to see, and does what you don't want to see. Yes I do plant trees to block sun for the shading effect. If they are deciduous, blocking sunlight isn't an issue in winter and it has a tremendous impact in summer to keep our stucco over brick house cool. It sort of amazed me to see someone mention leasing solar panels. You lease from them for your power, or they lease from you for the exposure and buy the power you generate? In our neck of the woods, it would be a company wanting to sink an oil well, instead. LOL. I have a perfect south facing roof area, but any solar panels ever getting there would be self-financed and simply supplemental in their efficiency. I don't have central air, and having a boiler heat am not interested in retrofitting ducts to accomodate it. Trees size so much more quickly than you think. I have some aerial shots of our property taken fifteen years apart and it's astounding at the amount of canopy we have now, compared to then. Our annual rainfall is adequate for most of our plantings and we have installed some freeze proof spigots away from the house, but I got a chuckle over the remark of 100 gallon tanks for watering. Tried that one year and .........well....despite how large a tractor you have, you'd better have more than a trailer behind it to pull your water tank. The center of gravity shifts in liquid loads. It ain't purty. Yes on buying small for most trees. They establish more readily and catch up with the bigger, more expensive ones quite quickly. I've had just as good success with B and B, but really the only reason I got the ones I did was I couldn't find them container. This is going to take years and it never really gets done. That's as it should be and part of the adventure. I can honestly say I've never had to rip a tree out because of poor placement. Nobody shares the exact gardening philosophy and what's right for me might not be right for you as far as pleasing to the senses. Over the years I have found I've been much more pleased with a tree whose needs have been met than one unsuitable for the growing conditions. A healthy and robust, easy care tree is often more beautiful than one which you much struggle to keep happy. Remember it's a lot easier to attend to correcting things like improper branch angles than addressing the problems they cause down the road. Have fun with it and enjoy the journey, too.

'Bob Fincham developed a Gold Weeping Norway spruce called 'Gold Drift' that would look great in the right settings.' I actually have spent a lot of time on Coenosium Gardens website, indulging my love of acid yellow coloration in plants. I have considered the 'Gold Drift' but it would be such a small speciman if I buy it from there- it will take a very long time to get some size on it and I'm tired of my baren yard. Kvolt- I actually am along the valley floor. Right above Gardener Village at pretty much the dead center point of the valley. The two specimans I have been watching this year are also located at the same west coordinate but a little further north. I guess if I really want to try this one, I should go and talk with the person growing those specimans and find out how they are working first hand. Most of the landscape work we do is on the east side and I grew up there with basically the opposite gardening conditions that I have now. I've noticed a lot of Metasequoias there- I wonder if a 'Gold Rush' Metasequoia would be an option for me? I do have very alkaline, clay soil which is the reason I am not attempting any firs that are more than small minis. If I could grow an Abies Concolor 'Candicans' rest assured, I would- but I know that's asking too much. The soil the 'silberperle's' will go in is heavily ammended down 18" with the Utelite Church Blend extremely expensive soil ammendment so the 'Silberperle' shrub MIGHT work. It won't cost me too much to find out but I think I'll still put it at the bottom of the 'to purchase' list.

Yes, bushes and shrubs are the same thing (unless you are talking politics), but shrubs is a more acceptable horticultural term. Most of Delaware seems to be a zone 7 so your plant choices are pretty broad - in fact, almost too broad to be practical to give specific suggestions, specially since you did not indicate what your sun or shade conditions are or the type of soil you are dealing with. You would be far better off visiting a good local nursery or garden center (not a Home Depot or Lowe's). Nursery staff are typically much more knowledgeable than box store employees and if you describe your growing conditions, size requirements and preferences for evergreen, flowering, etc., they will give you a bunch of choices. There are scores of flowers that return year after year - they are referred to as perennials. Again, your choices will be limited only by your specific growing situation and your imagination. Unless you are looking at dwarf varieties, most trees will grow in excess of 20 feet. Many novice gardeners are unaware of the sizes of established plants that they see - a 20-25' tree with a modest spread is not a big tree by any stretch of the imagination and is certainly suitable for smaller gardens. Or if you really want something smaller and more compact, you may be better off looking for faster growing large shrubs for your privacy screening. Again, your nursery is the best place to get suggestions for these types of plants. Be prepared to tell the staff the amount of sunlight the area gets and the quality of the soil. This will help them pick out plants that will do well under those conditions.

No one can advise you because we do not know your zone or soil conditions.