As a family owned and operated company, The Barn Nursery is dedicated to providing the highest level of quality available in the marketplace. The key to this ongoing success is a well trained, career oriented staff of professionals. The Barn Nursery inspires quality and motivation, and in turn makes every effort to treat its team members with honesty, respect and fairness.

A great emphasis is placed on training and education. We offer our employees a college reimbursement plan, encourage industry certification such as the CLT , and also promote an in-house peer training program using our current staff of professionals to mentor new employees.

Professionalism is important in any industry. The Barn Nursery employees are trained and motivated to maintain the highest degree of professional conduct in the market.

Meet Our Landscape Team

Tom Kusmerz, Sr.

Tom Kusmerz is a founding member of The Barn Nursery and Landscape Center and began his career as a landscape designer in 1958. Today, Tom is an accomplished Illinois Landscape Architect. His work has been recognized throughout his career including the ILCA's coveted Excellence in Landscape Gold Award.

His success is attributed to his passion and love for what he does. The artistry and intelligence in his designs is driven by a love of landscape design. Some of his accomplishments are:

• Named Illinois Landscape Contractor's Association (ILCA) Man of the Year 2007.
• Involved in the ILCA since 1971, he served for 8 years on the ILCA Board and eight years as ILCA's representative for Mid-Am, the annual premier horticultural trade show.
• Tom has been a mainstay for 17 years of the ILCA Summer Field Day Committee which sponsors and annual outdoor landscape exhibition with over 300 exhibitors.
• Tom helped establish the Certified Landscape Technician program, served as a judge coordinator and oversaw the building of the permanent test site at Joliet Community College.

On the personal side, Tom has been married to his college sweetheart Linda for over 40years and is the father of two children that now work at The Barn. He is also the proud grandfather of 4 grandchildren. When he isn't working, he enjoys the outdoors, hunting and fishing and traveling.

Tom Kusmerz, Jr.

Tom is the third generation of the Kusmerz family to lead The Barn Nursery and according to family stories, has actually been employed since childhood, when his grandfather, Len, paid him by the penny to pull weeds in the nursery. Today Tom is a business school graduate that has been working full time for The Barn since 2000. He runs the Landscape Division and also is a visionary when it comes to landscape design. Tom loves working with your ideas to create something unique and imaginative.

Tom is very active in local politics and has become an active member of the ILCA. He is an ILCA Legislative Lieutenant for our district. The ILCA identifies a Legislative Lieutenant for each of the state’s 19 federal congressional districts. Lieutenants are citizens of the district. When ILCA needs local contractors to converse with their local legislators we rely on our Lieutenants to spread the word. He is also on the ILCA Membership Committee, which makes sure the ILCA Board of Directors is acting in the best interest of the members and also to campaign for new members.

He has been a  Certified Landscape Technician for over 10 years and specializes in natural stone hardscape designs and ecological preservation in landscape, including rain gardens, natural lawn care and stormwater solutions. He acts as the leader of the Barn when it comes to introducing new techniques and applications, particularly in "green solutions".

Outside The Barn, Tom is happily married and has two young children that keep him busy with soccer, swimming and pre-school. He loves hunting and being outside and also participates in a dart league when it is too cold for outside activities.

Rob Baughman

Rob graduated from Southern Illinois University with a Bachelors Degree in Architecture and has worked for the Barn since 2000. As a Senior Landscape Designer, Rob is a familiar face for customers that have a long history of successful projects. Rob enjoys getting to know his customers and this allows his to really understand their needs. Rob grew up in the Barrington area and has a strong respect & understanding of our local landscape. Landscape has been in his life since he was young. He aided his Grandfather in Barrington Hills with his landscape since he was a child. His love of the outdoors has been a very positive influence on his life and The Barn Nursery has helped him achieve his goals.

Rob now lives in McHenry and married his beautiful wife in the fall of 2004 and has a young son.  He is a sports lover and can seasonally be found rooting for various college basketball teams, the Cubs and the Bears.

Greg Bohacz

Greg joined The Barn in 1980 and is the most senior member of our Landscape Division. Greg has been certified arborist 1998 and Illinois licensed pesticide applicator. He contributed to the start of the ILCA Certified Landscape Technician program. Greg loves working on our landscape construction jobs and makes sure everything runs smoothly and the installations are perfectly completed.

Greg lives with his wife and 2 children and enjoys hunting and being outside. He is a huge Michigan football fan and always keeps his friends, co-workers and customers laughing with his hilarious stories.