Tree At Edge Of Field

[gahspidy]

Aaron, these are a couple of examples of the conversion I'm getting at. These two pictures that i got from your post did not hold up very well to the conversion, but a full resolution file, especially done in 16 bit should hold up with no problems.
In both pictures I converted to b&w using the channels mixer with a setting of
Red channel 80
Green channel 30
Blue channel -10
The reason for the boost in the green channel is to bring out the green areas of the tree, and a slight reduction in blue channel to darken the blue sky a bit.
Then I did a curves adjustment using a mild S-curve to enhance the overall contrast.
On the horizontal picture, I increased the canvas size and added more foreground to the bottom and a little more space to the left of the tree, both using the cloning brush.
You mentioned that you were trying to get a blurry fg with a sharp tree. I would have focused halfway between the tree and the bottom of the frame with a small aperture 11 or so because the tree will still come out looking quite sharp and then the benefit of having that textured dried grass sharp will be a real treat.
I still like the framing and comp of the original picture you posted in this thread. i would try for that again, but lay on the ground so as to get the tree up over the trees in the background. A dramatic sky or a puffy cloud would be a boost as well.