The Brisbane drag artist Beverly Kills recently appeared on the ABC flagship show Gardening Australia, offering viewers a glimpse of a leafy retreat tucked into an urban high-rise. On the program hosted by Costa Georgiadis, the feature explored how a compact balcony can become a meaningful place for rest and creativity. The performer, whose given name is Reece Jackson, shared the story behind both the character and the plants, and spoke about how tending to greenery helps steady a life lived in colour and motion.
Listed as one of the youngest and the first Queensland queens to compete on Drag Race Down Under‘s second season, Reece balances a public performance life with private rituals. Their small city garden is not a mere hobby but a deliberate practice that brings perspective. In the interview they described how the slow, repeating rhythms of watering and pruning offer the opposite tempo to deadlines, shows and travel. For Reece, that contrast is central: the garden removes urgency and creates space for reflection and gentle maintenance.
Origins and reinvention
Reece traced the birth of their drag persona back to a pivotal personal moment. At 17 they experienced a difficult breakup that pushed them to search for new ways of expressing emotion and rebuilding identity. Out of that period came Beverly Kills, a character that allowed permissions and possibilities previously closed off. The performer described drag as a form of ongoing transformation: costume, makeup and performance all function as creative experiments that evolve over time. This process of continual change is mirrored in the slow, seasonal adjustments made in their city garden.
From Gold Coast to city balcony
Originally from the Gold Coast, Reece grew up near beaches and estuaries, environments that shaped an early relationship with natural spaces. Relocating to a metropolitan setting meant giving up some of that immediate access to open water and sand, but it also inspired a fresh approach to plants. Their high-rise balcony became a deliberate attempt to bring back elements of coastal calm into an urban routine. The balcony is arranged with containers, layers and microclimates that reflect an intuitive sense of the outdoors transposed into a metropolitan footprint.
Gardening as sanctuary and studio
In conversation on the show, Reece labelled gardening a therapeutic practice and used the playful term plant gay to describe their identity as a plant lover. They explained that small acts—repotting, moving a pot to catch light, watching a new leaf unfurl—function like quiet rituals. These rituals provide a deliberate pause from a career that demands spectacle and speed. The balcony garden operates as both sanctuary and studio: a place to decompress and a setting where ideas for aesthetics can take shape away from the bright lights of performance.
Creative parallels between drag and plants
Reece highlighted an unexpected kinship between drag-making and gardening: neither is ever truly finished. In drag, a costume is constantly reworked—more embellishment, a new glove, a changed wig—and the same mentality applies to plant care. The garden is continuously curated: pots are shifted, soil is amended, and plants are pruned according to mood and growth. This commitment to ongoing development makes both practices live artworks, with the artist and the gardener responding to change rather than seeking finality.
Maintenance, iteration and joy
For Reece, maintenance is creative, and iteration is joyful. They argued that accepting evolution—whether in a performance or a potted fern—opens space for experimentation. The therapeutic element lies in the slow timeline: gardening gives permission to move at plant speed, to wait and to celebrate small improvements. This mindset has practical benefits too; tending plants can reduce stress, provide routine and offer a tangible record of care as new shoots emerge and containers fill out.
Where to watch and community links
Viewers interested in the full profile can stream the segment on ABC iview, where the episode showcases both the visual charm of the balcony and the personal reflections Reece shared with the host. For readers seeking broader LGBTIQA+ coverage, QNews publishes community news, entertainment and stories, and maintains a presence across social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The piece functions as a reminder that gardening and performance are complementary ways to build identity, calm and community in contemporary city life.