What's your position - Latitude & Longitude?

The thing about latitude is that the Gulf Stream makes a massive difference. I'd be surprised if someone from Maine could learn anything useful from French winter growing techniques!

Continental climates, in both the US and Russia, are much more extreme than our temperate island. I've visited Minnesota in July and it's significantly hotter than England at that time of year, but they also have really cold winters, similar to Norway (it's no coincidence that most Midwesterners are descended from northern Europeans).

I'm in a gardening group on Ravelry (an online community for knitters and other woolly crafts), and most of the other members are in North America, from northern Saskatchewan in Canada down to Phoenix, Arizona. I remember being amazed that I'm at the same latitude as Saskatoon, Canada, which is Zone 3b in American gardening terms, whereas Cambridge is roughly Zone 8b/9a (depending on who you ask). Of course US hardiness zones don't entirely apply to the UK anyway, since we have more extreme day lengths which are just as significant as temperature ranges.

Years ago in my youth I went out with a lass from Saskatchewan. It was a fairly mild winter here but she was always wrapped up and cold. I remember her saying where she came from it was a 'dry' cold and she felt a lot warmer there than in England.. Dunno whether this would make a difference, just saying.