Hello Celeste, & Welcome to the forums.
Mentioning "northern" twice in your introduction prompts a reply but a location just about 100 "crow flight" miles south of 49° North latitude is a little misleading. Comparable winter temperatures with yours aren't likely the last few years. I can hardly remember winters without below 0°f until lately. It looks like single digitS' may be all we will experience again this winter.
However, you were talking about the gardening season so I can say that growing season warmth can compare with North Dakota ... admitting that makes me wish it didn't! We even squeezed past Fargo this year but it took high temperatures that broke many local records.
Steve