For exploring the effect of natural vegetation restoration of abandoned farmland in the loess hilly region on soil water environment, this paper took five natural vegetation restoration (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years) abandoned farmlands as the research object in Ansai County,Yanan. And the changes of soil characteristic in different natural restoration stages and its effects on soil water-storage capacity were studied using the method of substituting temporal serial with spatial serial . The results showed that: In the process of natural vegetation restoration of abandoned farmland, the soil bulk density of the surface layer (0—20 cm) was lower than that of the lower layer (20—40 cm) in different soil layers at the same natural recovery stage. At different stages of natural restoration, the soil bulk density of surface soil decreased first and then increased with a minimum at 30 years of natural restoration, indicating that natural vegetation restoration could lead to decrease soil bulk density of surface soil. Reaching the maximum at 30 years, the total capillary porosity and non-capillary porosity of surface soil increased first and then decreased, while capillary porosity decreased initially and increased afterwards. Reaching the maximum at 30 years, soil total water-storage capacity and non-capillary water-storage capacity increased first and then decreased at different stages of natural restoration. The changing trends of soil physical characteristic showed that with the increase of soil bulk, soil gravel content and capillary porosity, and with the decrease of non-capillary porosity, the soil water-storage capacity was reduced, and vice versa.