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Understanding soil degradation is especially important in the Mediterranean Region where desertification is a serious problem, and soil salinization is one of the causes. Salinity reduces soil quality, limits crop productivity and brings on long term soil degradation. Therefore the restoration of degraded soils is necessary to reduce land degradation, improve soil fertility and achieve a sustainable food production. The addition of compost supplemented with the beneficial microorganism Trichoderma harzianum isolate T78 to saline soils (NaCl) was studied to determine the impact on soil microbiology, which is the key to restore and rehabilitate degraded soils. The selected Trichoderma harzianum isolate T78 showed high salt tolerance despite the low osmotolerance of the genus Trichoderma. Increasing salt concentration reduced Trichoderma sp colony-forming units (CFU) from natural soil and adversely affected soil microbial biomass C as well as dehydrogenase, beta-glucosidase, phosphatase and urease activities. Simultaneous amendment of the saline soil with compost and inoculation with T. harzianum T78 improved the soil microbiological quality; the number of T. harzianum T78 CFU did not decrease as NaCl increased. As T. harzianum strain T78 is salt tolerant, increasing the relative abundance of this specific strain would contribute to the rehabilitation of saline soils. Vineyard composts supplemented with T. harzianum T78 represent a promising approach for the treatment and improvement of saline soil properties. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.