Mint and Soil

Whenever I read about mint in other sites, they make it out to be some kind of weed that spreads and takes over the garden.  Supposedly, it's not very particular in terms of care.  However, I have found that mint can be quite particular with soil.  Case in point.  Look at the Japanese Mint planted in the pot.  I've had mints planted on the ground about four months ago and yet, they're still really small.  Granted, I've pruned them a couple of times, there have been no signs of a garden takeover.   In this pot, however, the tomato I planted with this mint died.  Oh well.  However, the mint is about a foot and a half tall already with really nice big leaves.  What's the soil?  Not a lot actually.  I planted shallow then I put in a good amount of organic mulch (dried leaves, grass and egg shells).  I guess it helps that there are also stakes.   In other cases, when the soil is compact, the mint would die.  This leads me to believe that soil aeration and organic content matters when growing mints.   What's your experience?

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