Touring cyclist chiming in here. Many of us use 24t chainrings with 11-34 cassettes. As 10 speed mountain is relatively new, 11-36 is unexplored territory (atleast) on these forums. What I can tell you based on Shimano's published information is as follows:

11-36 is avaliable only on the 10 speed Shimano Dynasys mountain components. You need a Dynasys mountain rear derailleur. Regular mountain derailleurs can only accomodate sprockets as large as 34. As Shimano has a history of providing overly conservative derailleur capacity data, whether or not non-Dynasys RDs can accomodate 36t sprockets is unknown. My guess would be yes.

If you plan on using road (that is to say integrated, bar end, or downtube) indexed shifters, you must use a non-Dynasys mountain derailleur. The Dynasys derailleurs use a different cable pull ratio and are only compatible with Dynasys trigger shifters. A ten speed road shifter will work with a non-Dynasys rear derailleur on a 10 speed cassette.

Touring cyclists using 74-130BCD (regular road triple) cranksets often use 24, 38, 48 (or 46) chainrings. The lower two rings are the smallest sizes the BCDs will accomodate.

I'm not aware of any single chainring cranks with a BCD small enough to accomodate 28t rings. Maybe someone can chime in on this. You can get 104mm BCD single chainring cranks, allowing a minimum of 32t. These are commonly paired with bashguards, and if you wish, a chain guide such as the N-gear Jumpstop on the seat tube. This setup will eliminate chain drops.

Your best bet is use a regular road triple crankset, mount the 28t ring on the inner location, and use a long spindled bottom bracket to improve the chainline as much as possible.

Or just get an internally geared hub.