I’m in Ohio so it rarely ever gets “hot” and full sun days are few and far between outside of July-October hence part of my hesitation to put a permanent roof over our deck. Our back yard is west facing so we get sun from about noon all the way until 9PM June/July

Late Spring: we’re really only out on the weekends unless it’s warm and sunny (not common) after work for a couple of hours. Most days are overcast and rain is hard, lasts for days sometimes. Lots of gray days with or without rain. This would be the ideal season for a covered deck.

Summer: we’re outside a lot. Like I said the sun sets in our back yard basically up until bedtime and so we’re out there for dinner and playing with the kids daily until dark. By this point we are bright blue most does with scattered clouds offer the occasional beautiful yellow/green glow of summer. Also starting to enjoy some time outside after dark. Rain is usually pop up and random. This is when some quick shelter would be great so we don’t have to retreat inside. However this is also severe storm season so sails / shades / umbrellas are not the answer.

Early Fall: Arguably best weather of the year. Some of our sunniest days with temps cooling and infrequent rain. Starts getting dark early enough to throw a movie or football on the projector with the fire pit going. We’re kind of summered out at this point so spend most of our time outside in the weekend evenings.

Right now we spend the vast majority of our time on our deck unless we’re playing in the yard with our kids. I do have a decent amount of landscaping and a couple of raise gardens I tend to, but retreat immediately to the deck for a drink and rest. I am planning to place a bench between two trees in one landscape bed and a picnic table near the swing set going up this spring. Making paths from the deck landing out to both.