Looks at a glance like the photos are getting the crap edited out of them and I wouldn't do whatever's being done to them. Find good photos by famous photographers to get your eyes used to looking at good quality, not all the overedited instagrammed images online.
If you can nail the exposure that should be a big help. I'm a longtime film photographer and I learned to as much as possible get a proper exposure. It sure makes a difference in the darkroom to have negatives that aren't too dense or definitely not too thin (so there's not enough to even get a decent print). I find the same shooting digitally, that if I get a proper exposure shooting Raw I may not have to do any editing, or not much most of the time.
The other thing, realistically look at the tones and think about how much can it pop? A nice red tractor against the background should; but if you have a subject that's more neutral and a background that's all tan, green, and sky blue, most likely there may not be much contrast there. If you Remove Color that should show you how much gray and similarity in tone you have, and how much or how little black or white you have. (And that's what I use to do B&W, not the preprogrammed setting to Convert that's in Photoshop.)
I think with nature, something can only pop so much before editing blasts it into the psychedelic '60s. I'd think about the time of day; I find evenings can be much better to get some nice light instead of bright sun if I want to shoot some scenery.