Ecohydrological feedbacks control the development of self-patterned vegetation, yet the nature of vegetation temporal dynamics caused by such feedbacks is poorly understood. Observations show that early vegetation development on disturbed ecosystems exhibit damped behaviour, whereby biomass overshoot the long-term values, while fossil and pollen analyses reveal vegetation periodicity. However, the mechanisms responsible are either lacking or divergent. We propose a model based on vegetation-soil feedbacks as fundamental drivers of these patterns. We demonstrate that damped and periodic oscillations of vegetation could emerge from vegetation-soil feedbacks. Along a rainfall gradient, we observed threshold-like transitions of vegetation, involving a switch from bare state to damped and periodic oscillations, and a fully-vegetated state as rainfall increases. Overall, the model provides a unifying mechanism for vegetation temporal patterns observed in semi-arid areas.