Crude oil contamination can represent a significant stress for soil biological communities. One approach to remediate an affected ecosystem is to use phytoremediation, plants and agronomic techniques to enhance microbial degradation of pollutants in contaminated soil. Nematode communities were monitored between 30 and 57 months following initiation of a phytoremediation study incorporating the following treatments: non-fertilized vegetation-free control; fertilized fescue; or fertilized bermudagrass. Vegetation was successfully established at a site that had an initial total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) concentration of 9,175 mg/kg. TPH data were collected for confirmation of crude-oil degradation. However, loss of contaminants do not guarantee recovery of ecological functioning. Thus, our objective was to use a biological indicator to link remediation to ecosystem recovery. The successful establishment of vegetation resulted in greater total nematode and plant parasitic abundances in both vegetated treatments as compared to the control. Additionally, a succession of taxa occurred which led to indications of greater maturity and diversity in vegetated treatments at 57 months. While TPH data showed that phytoremediation can remove crude-oil from soil, biological data suggested that ecosystem recovery is slow and may lag behind chemical indicators.