Long-term mining activities have caused serious damage to the ecological environment in the mining area, such as reduced soil quality, decreased vegetation cover, and changed microbial habitats. Artificial vegetation restoration is an effective method for improving the ecological environment. Microbial communities are sensitive to ecological changes in mining areas. Studies are needed to examine soil microbial community composition and diversity responses to different artificial forest restoration ages. Therefore, in this study, the unreclamation field (UR), the original plant field (OP), and the Populus simonii fields with three different restoration years (PS10, PS20, and PS30) were chosen. The objective was to determine the changes in P. simonii plantation vegetation community characteristics and bacterial community structure during secondary succession relative to UR and OP, as well as the roles of vegetation traits and soil properties in driving these changes. The results showed that restoration ages exerted significant effects on vegetation communities, soil physicochemical properties, and bacterial communities. Vegetation restoration significantly enhanced vegetation communities, soil physicochemical properties, and bacterial communities compared to UR. The phyla Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, and Chloroflexi are dominant bacterial groups. Vegetation and soil environment factors exerted synergistic driving effects on soil bacterial communities. The integrated fertility index (IFI) indicated a progressive increase in soil fertility with the extension of restoration ages. In conclusion, P. simonii plantations exhibit temporally divergent effects on ecological restoration efficacy in mining areas. This study provides a scientific foundation for vegetation selection in ecological restoration of semi-arid coal mining reclamation zones.